We’ve spent $20 trillion since LBJ’s “War on Poverty” and what has it gotten us? Nothing. Poverty levels are at a 50 year high.

“If we are to make serious progress in the War on Poverty in the years to come, it will have to be as a result of both parties working together to prioritize economic opportunity and upward mobility. Not by telling the most vulnerable Americans that they’ll have to fend for themselves — that their fellow citizens will not lend a helping hand during their time of need.

“I am glad President Obama has chosen to make reducing economic inequality a focus in 2014. This ought to be our sacred charge: to carry on the work President Johnson began, without pause, until hunger, homelessness, and economic insecurity in any form no longer endanger the promise of our nation.”