
Rebuilding America: A Prescription for Creating Strong Families, Building the Wealth of Working People, and Ending Welfare
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty as a centerpiece of the Great Society's effort to eliminate poverty in America. Forty years and many trillions of dollars later, poverty in America has increased, not decreased, despite the vast efforts of the largest governmental welfare system ever created in human history. In direct challenge to the political thinking that built the welfare state, Rebuilding America presents the outline of a bold plan for the overall elimination of poverty. The strategy of this new effort focuses on mobilizing the assets of urban America that have been largely cast aside and ignored by forty years of Great Society schemes. The approach proposed by J. Kenneth Blackwell emphasizes developing the urban landscape and creating meaningful employment for the poor without imposing additional tax burdens on the American people. Unlike the programs of the Great Society, this new approach can actually break the welfare dependency that has encouraged