By: Sarah Biehl, Staff Attorney

The concentrations of power and wealth that we are seeing at the top and the sense of political exclusion and impossibility that we are seeing at the bottom threaten a new order that would hard to characterize as the animating ideal of our country. At the end of the day, our democracy is at stake.

– Peter Edelman

Today I read one of the best, most poignant blog posts I’ve ever read about poverty in the United States. In it, Peter Edelman, a law professor at Georgetown University, both promotes his new book, So Rich, So Poor: Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in the United States, and summarizes some of his book’s main points. I am definitely going to go out and get this book. But, even if you don’t want to read the book, read the blog post. In it, Professor Edelman explains very succinctly why the drive to further limit public benefits (welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.) available to poor families is bad policy and harms our country.

Read it here: How Poverty Puts Our Democracy at Stake | ACS. And, once you’ve read, please feel free to post comments and thoughts below. We’d love to hear what you think.