June 12, 2018

The Guardian: Democrats urge Congress to take action on 'appalling rates of poverty'

Letter calls for plan of action following dire United Nations report into extreme poverty

Bernie Sanders and a group of top Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to present a plan to Congress to combat “massive levels of deprivation and the immense suffering this deprivation causes”, following an excoriating United Nations report into extreme poverty in America.


In a congressional letter delivered on Tuesday to Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, the group said the UN report was “a call to action that we must heed”. They stand ready, the signatories say, to work with the Trump administration “to address appalling rates of child poverty, destructive economic policies that benefit the wealthy over the working poor … and lack of access to basic necessities in rural and underserved communities”.


The signatories include many of the most outspoken critics of inequality and poverty in America today. In addition to Sanders, an independent from Vermont who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, the senators in the group are Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein and Jeff Merkley.


Read the full story on The Guardian website here.


By:  Ed Pilkington
Source: The Guardian