THIS evening, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan will meet in their only vice-presidential debate. Without a doubt they’ll square off on jobs, taxes and Medicare. But in all likelihood, one key issue will be lucky to merit even a passing remark from either side — the question of how to lift 46 million Americans out of poverty. It’s an issue crying out for serious debate.

Each year, American taxpayers spend nearly $1 trillion trying to help the poor, according to a recent study by the Cato Institute. It’s easy to miss that headline number, though, because the money flows into and out of scores of federal, state and local government programs. In April, Michael D. Tanner, a senior fellow at Cato, a libertarian research group, compiled a list of 126 federal programs for low-income Americans, which together spend $668 billion of taxpayer money annually. State and local governments allocate an additional $284 billion, he estimated.

Gary MacDougal will join Rod at 5:20pm to discuss our efforts against poverty

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/americas-ineffective-antipoverty-effort.html?_r=2