Democrats Do Have Anti-Poverty Plan, It's Just Not Presented That Way

The New York Times has an article today noting that neither Presidential candidate is really talking about poverty and the poor. And, as Kevin Drum also points out, Bernie Sanders didn’t really talk about that much either. It’s certainly not unusual for the Republican party not to talk about poverty – their usual position is that it’s the poor’s fault anyway – although the Times still feels obligated to mention Paul Ryan’s bogus anti-poverty plan as somehow showing Republicans’ equivalent concern. As far as the Democrats go, I have to agree with Drum that they have concluded that poverty is not a winning economic message, especially with a declining middle class that is feeling constantly under pressure. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have policies to address poverty – after all, raising the minimum wage is a pretty big anti-poverty measure as is Clinton’s affordable child care plan. Affordable health care and free college education are also part of the package. And Democrats also realize that everything they can do to raise middle class standards of living will also flow down to poorer citizens as well. And if not mentioning that fact or detailing specific proposals without calling them an anti-poverty plan perversely helps them with the electorate, then so be it.