WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama is participating in a panel discussion about poverty, and his message is that there’s no reason to think the nation can’t fight it effectively.
Obama says the recent unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, has increased awareness of the problems associated with wealth inequality, and created an opening to focus new attention on solutions.
The president said at Tuesday’s forum that “it’s a mistake” to think efforts to stamp out poverty have failed and the government is powerless to address it.
Obama said there are programs that work all around the country, but the trick is to put them into place on a larger scale.
Obama spoke during a discussion at a Catholic-Evangelical summit at Georgetown University.