Peter Edelman sat down with Democracy Now! to discuss his new book, “So Rich, So Poor: Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America.” Currently, one in every two Americans live in poverty. Peter Edelman talks about this startling statistic and today’s economy. The Center and our partners advocate for a bold jobs agenda to jump start the economy and relieve the massive suffering caused by historic levels of unemployment and underemployment. We fight to make sure that an unfair burden does not fall on the shoulders of Americans who have to live paycheck to paycheck.
Edelman is currently a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Edelman worked as a top advisor to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and worked for the Clinton administration until his resignation in 1996. He left the Clinton administration in protest of the 1996 welfare reform legislation.