(A "New Beginning" indeed)

War on Poverty Over: Poverty Won.

Financial Times reports  "US workers’ poverty reaches 50-year high."

Poverty among the working-age population of the US rose to the highest level for almost 50 years in 2009, as the human cost of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression was laid bare in new census data.

Poverty among those aged 18 to 64 rose by 1.3 percentage points to 12.9 per cent -- the highest level since the early 1960s, prior to then-president Lyndon Johnson’s "War on Poverty. The overall poverty rate rose by 1.1 percentage points to 14.3 per cent, the highest since 1994.

Whereas the New York Times reported a 15-year high? According to Census data? Note the difference in the links.

Again you have to wonder about the efficacy of Bill Clinton's triangulating "welfare reform." Three members of his administration resigned over the signing of the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act."

It was part of the reason I was for Nader against Gore and for Obama against Hillary, even if Obama has said welfare "reform" was a good thing.

Update: The Financial Times reports poverty "among those aged 18 to 64" is at a 50-year high. They don't say it, but much-maligned Social Security seems to have blunted poverty amongst those over 64, something the Catfood Commission intends to remedy.