The sharp jump in poverty announced by the government last Friday should come as no surprise to anyone who has tracked the ailing economy these last few months. …

What should be surprising, even alarming, is the reaction of the Bush administration, which seems to range from indifference to petulance. Just three weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced proudly that the number of people receiving welfare benefits continued to fall last year. Does the administration really believe that when the number of people who need public assistance goes up, the number who actually receive it should go down? …

Cash welfare is only one example of this administration’s tin ear with respect to economic hardship. …

Americans have turned a skeptical eye on anti-poverty policy ever since President Ronald Reagan famously announced, &uot;We declared a war on poverty, and poverty won.” Well, poverty did not win. The number of poor Americans, especially the elderly and the young, plummeted between 1960 and 1970, the years when Congress created food stamps, Medicaid and other food and housing programs. When the U.S. economy is strong, as it was during the 1990s, it reinforces a fine set of American virtues, including hard work and self-reliance. When the economy is weak, as it is today, it should remind us why Americans created programs to assist each other in the first place.

– Star Tribune, Minneapolis