Obama: We Must 'Guard Against Cynicism' When It Comes To Poverty
President Obama says overcoming poverty requires both strong families and a strong economy.
Speaking at Georgetown University Tuesday, Obama said that political debates over poverty often get hung up over the role of government, families and religious institutions.
"I think it's important when it comes to dealing with issues of poverty for us to guard against cynicism and not buy the idea that the poor will always be with us, and there's nothing we can do," Obama said. "Because there's a lot we can do."
Obama made no apology for the tough-love message he sometimes delivers to African-American audiences, in which he stresses personal responsibility as one road out of poverty.
"I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the cost that I paid for that," Obama said. "And I also know that I have the capacity to break that cycle. And as a consequence, I think my daughters are better off."
But the president quickly added that family dysfunction and social ills are no excuse for withholding public investment by the government.
"What portion of our collective wealth and budget are we willing to invest in those things that allow a poor kid — whether in a rural town, or in Appalachia, or in the inner city — to access what they need both in terms of mentors and social networks, as well as decent books and computers and so forth, in order for them to succeed?" Obama asked. "We don't make those same common investments that we used to, and it's had an impact."
"And we shouldn't pretend that somehow we have been making those same investments," he added. "We haven't been, and there's been a very specific ideological push not to make those investments."
Obama was joined on the panel by Harvard social scientist Robert Putnam, whose most recent book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chronicles the growing opportunity gap between economic classes in the United States. The president suggested wealthy Americans today are more isolated from the poor and middle class, and therefore less willing to invest in programs that boost opportunity.
"If we can't ask from society's lottery winners to just make that modest investment, then really this conversation is for show," Obama said.
Arthur Brooks, who heads the conservative American Enterprise Institute, rounded out the panel. He defended the role of government safety net programs but said they should be limited to the truly indigent and accompanied by work.
"The poor are not having their money taken away and given to the rich," Brooks said. "To the extent that we can get away from the notion that the rich are stealing from the poor, then we can look at this in a way that I think is instructive."
Just across town, at a session organized by the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, progressive economists and politicians argued there has been a deliberate transfer of wealth upward. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren noted that since 1980, virtually all of the proceeds of economic growth have flowed to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, while everyone else was either treading water or losing ground.
"The rich and powerful rigged the game, and now they want the game to stay rigged," Warren said. "If we want a strong middle class, it is time for new rules."
The Roosevelt Institute's chief economist, Joseph Stiglitz, offered a menu of new rules designed to re-balance economic power. The proposals include stronger unions, more public works investment and a higher minimum wage.
Some of the proposals have also been championed by President Obama, so far without much success.
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Transcript
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
President Obama says overcoming poverty requires a strong economy and strong families. The president spoke today at a panel on poverty at Georgetown University. Organizers at the Catholic school say they were inspired by Pope Francis and his call to put the poor at the center of religious and public life. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Journalist E.J. Dionne, who moderated the panel, says poverty is not the kind of issue politicians usually like to address unless it's forced on them by events like last month's riots in Baltimore. President Obama says the discussion often gets hung up over the role of government, families and religious institutions. The complicated reality, he says, is that addressing poverty takes all three.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think it's important, when it comes to dealing with issues of poverty, for us to guard against cynicism and not buy the idea that the poor will always be with us, and there's nothing we can do 'cause there's a lot we can do.
HORSLEY: Obama sometimes draws criticism from within the black community for delivering a tough love message to African-Americans in which he stresses personal responsibility as one road out of poverty. The president said today he makes no apology for that approach.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the cost that I paid for that, and I also know that I had the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence, I think my daughters are better off.
HORSLEY: But Obama says highlighting family dysfunction and other social ills is no excuse for shortchanging the kind of public investment that's needed to boost opportunity in places such as Appalachia or inner-city Baltimore. He suggested some of the wealthiest Americans have grown less willing to make such public investments as they're increasingly isolated from the poor and middle class. Obama complained, not for the first time, about the tax breaks enjoyed by some of the wealthiest, and he said the richest 25 hedge fund managers made more than all the kindergarten teachers in the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: If we can't ask from society's lottery winners to just make that modest investment, then really this conversation is for show.
HORSLEY: Obama was joined on the panel by Arthur Brooks, who heads the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Brooks dismissed the president's hedge fund example as a show issue and argued the growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else results from seismic economic shifts.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ARTHUR BROOKS: The poor are not having their money taken away and given to the rich. To the extent that we can get away from this notion that the rich are stealing from the poor, then we can look at this, and I think, in a way that's constructive.
HORSLEY: But across town at a session organized by the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, progressive economists and politicians argued there has been a deliberate transfer of wealth upwards. Since the 1980s, the proceeds of economic growth have flowed almost exclusively to the top of the income ladder. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren insists that's no accident.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: The rich and powerful rigged the game, and now they want the game to stay rigged. If we want a strong middle class, it is time for new rules.
HORSLEY: Many of the new rules Warren called for today are similar to those Obama has championed, so far without much success - stronger unions, more public works investment, a higher minimum wage. The policies raised today for addressing poverty and stagnant middle-class wages could help frame the debate for next year's presidential election. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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