June 4, 2016

Poverty ignored in nine Democratikc debates

Alternet

A FAIR analysis of all nine democratic debates over the past seven months shows that not one question was asked about poverty. By contrast, 30 questions were asked about ISIS or terrorism (almost half of them concentrated in the December 19 debate) which took place days after the San Bernardino shootings) and 11 questions were asked Russia. Ten questions were asked about socialism or communism, all of which were directed at Bernie Sanders.

The candidates themselves have brought up poverty, either in their prepared remarks or in response to more abstract questions about the economy. Sanders brought up poverty in all but two debates, broaching the topic 12 times, or approximately 1.3 times per debate. Clinton brought up the issue five times in total, or a little more than once every other debate.

According to the 2014 Census 14.5 percent of Americans, or over 45 million people, live in poverty, up from 11.3 percent in 2000. Child poverty (which Sanders points out consistently) is especially troubling, with an estimated 16 million Americans under the age of 18 living below the poverty line.

A 2011 study attributed 133,000 deaths a year to poverty-related illnesses. Poverty has also 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peace, also a topic absent in the debates.

Anonymous said...

If a poverty question came up, it would drive home how out of touch Hilary is, and how well Bernie understands the issue. The DNC can't have that.