Poverty in the United States: A Review of Relevant Programs

Poverty is a major social problem in the United States: in 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 46.7 million people living in poverty and an estimated 14.8 percent poverty rate. The poverty rate has been steadily increasing in the United States, with a 2 percent increase in 2012 over 2007. Federal and state governments have initiated many anti‐poverty programs, starting with the New Deal Program in the 1930s. With the advent of a new governance approach in the 1990s, many hierarchical bureaucratic government agencies were replaced with public, private, network, and collaborative approaches to solve this complex national problem. Tax expenditures, vouchers, and grants are the three major governance tools used by the U.S. federal and state governments to fight poverty. This article addresses three important programs—the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—used in fighting poverty in the United States and discusses the problem of poverty, the effectiveness of these governance tools, suggestions for future research, and policy implications