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Infuriated by a scathing United Nations report estimating that over 18 million Americans are living in "extreme poverty" and accusing the Trump administration of "deliberately" making such destitution worse with its tax cuts for the rich, the White House insisted in its June response to the U.N. analysis that the United States is overflowing with "prosperity" and that claims of widespread poverty are "exaggerated."
"This is not as dramatic as Trump's tweets or bald-faced lies at press briefings. But in a way it is far more insidious; the contempt for facts is pervasive and maddening."
—Jeff Greenfield
But internal State Department emails and documents obtained by Foreign Policy and the non-profit journalism website Coda Story show that the Trump administration ignored advice of White House economic analysts and knowingly lied to the public about the severity of American poverty, which the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston described as "shocking."
The Heritage report cited by the White House also concluded that the conditions of the poor must be improving because many families living in deep poverty own cell phones and DVD players.
This, from the White House that just passed a tax cut funneling money from the poor to the rich, and is also considering another tax cut exclusively for the wealthy.
4. The United States is a land of stark contrasts. It is one of the world’s wealthiest societies, a global leader in many areas, and a land of unsurpassed technological and other forms of innovation. Its corporations are global trendsetters, its civil society is vibrant and sophisticated and its higher education system leads the world. But its immense wealth and expertise stand in shocking contrast with the conditions in which vast numbers of its citizens live. About 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty.1 It has the highest youth poverty rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the highest infant mortality rates among comparable OECD States. Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent, and it has the world’s highest incarceration rate, one of the lowest levels of voter registrations in among OECD countries and the highest obesity levels in the developed world.
5. The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries.1 The $1.5 trillion in tax cuts in December 2017 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality. The consequences of neglecting poverty and promoting inequality are clear. The United States has one of the highest poverty and inequality levels among the OECD countries, and the Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks it 18th out of 21 wealthy countries in terms of labour markets, poverty rates, safety nets, wealth inequality and economic mobility. But in 2018 the United States had over 25 per cent of the world’s 2,208 billionaires.2 There is thus a dramatic contrast between the immense wealth of the few and the squalor and deprivation in which vast numbers of Americans exist. For almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best, but the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship.
This, from the White House that just passed a tax cut funneling money from the poor to the rich, and is also considering another tax cut exclusively for the wealthy.
4. The United States is a land of stark contrasts. It is one of the world’s wealthiest societies, a global leader in many areas, and a land of unsurpassed technological and other forms of innovation. Its corporations are global trendsetters, its civil society is vibrant and sophisticated and its higher education system leads the world. But its immense wealth and expertise stand in shocking contrast with the conditions in which vast numbers of its citizens live. About 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditionsthey begin to suffer of absolute poverty.1 It has the highest youth poverty rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the highest infant mortality rates among comparable OECD States. Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent, and it has the world’s highest incarceration rate, one of the lowest levels of voter registrations in among OECD countries and the highest obesity levels in the developed world.
5. The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries.1 The $1.5 trillion in tax cuts in December 2017 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality. The consequences of neglecting poverty and promoting inequality are clear. The United States has one of the highest poverty and inequality levels among the OECD countries, and the Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks it 18th out of 21 wealthy countries in terms of labour markets, poverty rates, safety nets, wealth inequality and economic mobility. But in 2018 the United States had over 25 per cent of the world’s 2,208 billionaires.2 There is thus a dramatic contrast between the immense wealth of the few and the squalor and deprivation in which vast numbers of Americans exist. For almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best, but the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship.
This is exactly why I can't understand Trump followers staying loyal to this man. Most are hard working Americans who are getting pre-existing conditions taken away, the tariffs may make the cost of many things go up and the tax breaks for the middle class aren't permanent but, they are for the wealthy. The deficit growth will have their grandchildren paying it off.
I have voted both parties and 3rd but, never again will I vote Republican. I have watched how their jobs are much more important to them than their country.
This is exactly why I can't understand Trump followers staying loyal to this man. Most are hard working Americans who are getting pre-existing conditions taken away, the tariffs may make the cost of many things go up and the tax breaks for the middle class aren't permanent but, they are for the wealthy. The deficit growth will have their grandchildren paying it off.
I have voted both parties and 3rd but, never again will I vote Republican. I have watched how their jobs are much more important to them than their country.
Hey, they've got DVD players and a cell phone, it can't be all that bad!
Just to add, to all of those deluded individuals continuing to downgrade his predecessor, or his election rival who could have been in charge...the reality is, there would not have been the continual disaster we've seen if either of them had been in office instead, but rather tending to their work and concentrating on actual improvements, not having separated children from their parents, for one thing.
But we NEED to separate the children from their parents, simply because these wonderful illegal law breaking parents are the ones who put the kids in this position. I have absolutely no sympathy for the situation though I do feel for the kids. So, what the nut job liberals are saying is that you cannot incarcerate an illegal immigrant because if you did, the children would be without the parent. And of course, it would be terrible to keep them with the parent in the jail cell. So, the only solution is let the illegal law breaking criminal free so the entire family can be happily together.
Sorry. Doesnt work that way. What if someone came and shot your spouse, or your kid or you mother. The murderer is a single dad. He's going to jail. Everyone protests that if he goes to jail, the kid will be separated. Guess what? The court system, nor the victim's family gives a flying ****. The killer put himself in that position. If you or the crazy libs cannot understand such a simple concept as that, then you all need to check yourself in to a mental institution.
Thank God Trump is in office. Hillary, the worst candidate ever, beside obama, would have steered us down the path of no return.
Now we know why Trump thinks you need ID to buy groceries. His BFF Putin told him. Here's proof.
"She tells Hill Reporter that in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian government required residents to carry grocery ID cards when purchasing certain merchandise."
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I think it's more than half. 
