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The Source: The War On Poverty 50 Years Later

LBJ Library photo by Cecil Stoughton
War on Poverty Tour: President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes the hand of one of the residents of Appalachia as Agent Rufus Youngblood (far left) looks on

Fifty years ago last night, President Lyndon Baines Johnson called on lawmakers to help him wage a war on poverty. Few would argue that poverty is still a large issue today, but the effectiveness of the programs launched -- programs like Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Job Corps, etc. -- are widely debated depending on what party you identify with.

Today we talk about the legacy of the program with a variety of scholars.

First we speak with economic historian Dr. Martha J. Bailey, co-editor of "Legacies of the War on Poverty," and Igor Volsky, deputy editor of ThinkProgress.  

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A more conservative take with Ron Haskins from Brookings and Scott Winship From the Manhattan Institute

In the second half of the show, we speak with Ron Haskins with the Brookings Institution on what went wrong with the campaign to end poverty. We speak also with Scott Winship, the Walter B. Wriston fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who argues that both left and right have the scope of the problem wrong.

*The Source airs at 3 p.m. on KSTX 89.1 FM - audio from this show will be posted by 5:30 p.m.

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Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org