Page 39 - Bob Herbert News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

0 come on. this has got to be his year. robert redford. let's give it to him. >> true. >> not just to give it to him, but because he's earned it. great, gray. >> why don't we give him one of these? >> i wouldn't mind being in the room when you personally present it to him. how than? we'll make a date? >> me either. >> good to see you. appreciate it. all right. that's does it for us for now in the "newsroom." see you back here in about 30 minutes. i'm fredricka whitfield. "your money" starts right now. the economy is taking flight, but 50 years later we're still fighting a war on poverty. i...

0 >> during that week where the traffic jam started and there was all the press inquiries and there was the attempt to cover it up and spin it, clearly his senior staff knew and his senior staff don't do a lot of things in this administration without checking in with the governor. and so i believe that the governor had some knowledge of what was going on during that week. >> bob, is it possible that the aides were able to make decisions like this on their own? >> i wouldn't say it's impossible. but anybody who's covered politics knows there are no secrets in a tight-knit organization like that...

Anything like that in the cards right now. >> you know, annie, you were reporting on something that you were talking about that one of the biggest issues right now for the working poor is that they're just -- you know, if you were working poor 30 or 40 years ago you could get into an entry level job that didn't pay very well, kept you below the poverty line for a while, but you could work your way up. and you could get out of poverty. just by working at a specific place. that's missing today. and is that sort of among the root causes here in your mind? >> absolutely. one of the main problems t...

With globalization, that has to do with the decline of labor unions with b that has to do with technological change. i think the question then is how do you improve opportunity by making sure that the workforce keeps on becoming more educated and more skilled? but what do you do in the meantime? and especially for -- for kids. because a lot of children are still growing up in poverty. and that problem has also remained remarkably persistent. >> bob, right before tom vilsack left my set, when he knew i was previewing this, he said, hey, the poverty rate in rural america is worse than it is in u...

Is that what -- is that a point that we're at right now when we're talking about these poverty issues? or is the income inequality issue something that might actually have the attention of lawmakers? >> i think that you're right. that these anniversaries sent to come and go and nothing changes. but it's worth noting that 2014 is actually a really big year in terms of government programs, alleviating the effects of poverty because of the medicaid expansion. the medicaid expansion means that millions of childless poor adults are going to have access to health insurance in a way that they didn't ...