Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on Friday (April 25) called President Johnson’s 1964 declaration of a “War on Poverty” a noble undertaking.
Huckabee was speaking in Inez at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Johnson’s visit to Martin County as part of the President’s efforts to focus attention on the plight of the nation’s poor.
“Fifty years ago in this county, almost seventy percent of the people lived under the line of poverty. You can certainly celebrate that number has more than been cut in half. But, I think all of us would agree that not just in Martin County but across America, there are still people, who are still poor, people who are under-employed or unemployed…people who will experience genuine poverty in their lives.” –Mike Huckabee
Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential candidate, blames much of today’s poverty on the breakdown of the American family.
In 1964, Huckabee says, just seven percent of the country’s children were born into a family without two parents. Today, he says, the figures are 29 percent for white children, 52-point-five percent for Hispanics and 72 percent for African-Americans.
Huckabee’s appearance is part of an initiative called “Dream Martin County”…a new war on poverty.
