War on Poverty Is A Losing Battle

52 years ago today President LYNDON JOHNSON declared war on poverty . How’s it going? The War on Poverty has cost $22 trillion -- three times more than what the government has spent on all wars in American history. Federal and state governments spend $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars on America's 80 means-tested welfare programs annually.
Data presented by the Current Population Survey shows that in 2012 46.5 million people were living in poverty in the United States—the largest number in the 54 years the Census has measured poverty. Two years later the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent with an additional 200-thousand people in poverty.
Basic Statistics from the Heritage Foundation http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/09/the-war-on-poverty-after-50-years
• U.S. poverty (less than $18,550 for a family of three; $24,230 for a family of four): 46.7 million people, 14.8 percent of U.S (2014).
• African American poverty rate: 26.2 percent, 10.8 million people (2014).
• Hispanic poverty rate: 23.6 percent, 13.1 million people (2014).
• White poverty rate: 10.1 percent, 19.7 million people (2014).
• Native American poverty rate: 28.3 percent (2014).
• People with disabilities poverty rate: 28.5 percent (adults ages 18-64) (2014).
• Children in poverty: 15.5 million, 21.1 percent of all children under 18 (2014).
• African American child poverty rate: 37.1 percent (2014)
• American Indian/Native Alaskan child poverty rate: 47 percent (2013).
• Hispanic child poverty rate: 31.9 percent (2014).
• White child poverty rate: 12.3 percent (2014).
• Poverty rate for single-parent families headed by a female: 30.6 percent (2014).
• Number of married-couple families in poverty: 3.7 million (2014).
• Number of never married parents living in poverty: 4.6 million (2012).
Heritage says the key take away from their look at the stats are:

The lack of progress in building self-sufficiency since the beginning of the War on Poverty 50 years ago is due in major part to the welfare system itself.
By breaking down the habits and norms that lead to self-reliance, welfare generates a pattern of increasing intergenerational dependence.
By undermining productive social norms, welfare creates a need for even greater assistance in the future.
It is time to rein in the endless growth in welfare spending and return to President Lyndon Johnson’s original goals.
Able-bodied, non-elderly adult recipients in all federal welfare programs should be required to work, prepare for work, or at least look for a job as a condition of receiving benefits.
Finally—and most important—the anti-marriage penalties should be removed from welfare programs, and long-term steps should be taken to rebuild the family in lower-income communities.