"YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE POOR WITH YOU"

And we'll have a LOT more if we let the GOP run our economy. Under Bush, the poverty rate has increased since 2000 and the economy is currently doing much worse:

From the most recent trough in 2000, the rate rose for four consecutive years, from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 12.7 percent in 2004, and then declined to 12.3 percent in 2006 – a rate not statistically different from those in 2002 and 2003 (12.1 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively).

Study: Numbers of working poor increase

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
August 12, 2008

The number of low-income workers living in poor neighborhoods rose in 34 of 58 metro areas, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest, a study released Tuesday finds.

The economy played the largest role in concentrating poor workers in poor communities, a report by the Brookings Institution suggests.

"The people living in these communities are already at the margins," says Alan Berube, co-author of the report. "When things are booming, they get swept up in the growth, and when there's a downturn, they are the first to get affected."

The report focused on the increasing number of low-income workers eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from 1999 to 2005 and who lived in communities with a high concentration of poverty.

The number of low-income workers living in poor neighborhoods rose by 40% during that time period, suggesting the decline in concentrated poverty during the 1990s is reversing, the study finds.

In the 1990s, the number of people living in poor areas dropped by 24%, Berube says.