Kemp Speaks About Poverty

Increasing private ownership of property among lower income Americans is key to solving the nation's poverty problem, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp said in a speech last night.

A crowd of more than 150 students and faculty filled the Kennedy School of Government's ARCO Forum to hear Kemp discuss "Economic Growth and Empowerment in the 1990's."

Kemp, who has been in President Bush's cabinet since Bush's inauguration, based his speech on the premise that "there is a solution to poverty, a problem for the left and for the right."

He said widespread private property ownership is essential in combating poverty.

"There is not enough ownership of housing among low-income people," said the former New York senator. "The human spirit [is] smothered by being dependent on someone else."

However, Kemp stressed that federal government interference is not the answer.

"When the government tries to redistribute wealth...[it] ends up punishing the most productive members of society," he said.

Kemp emphasized the importance of private entrepreneurship in creating new jobs, calling for a cut in the capital gains tax.

"A decreed high capital gains tax denies opportunities for poor people," he said.

No Trickle Down Economics

Attempting to refute the widespread criticism that a capital gains tax cut would simply be a boon for the wealthy, Kemp said that his plan included the elimination of such taxes in inner-city areas.

"The Black community in American is denied the chance to own capital necessary to start their war on poverty," he said.

But Kemp said he is not advocating "trickle-down economics" because he believes the capital gains tax will benefit small businesses and indepedent entrepreneurs.

Partisan politics should not come to play in considering the capital gains tax cut, Kemp said.

"It's not Republican or Democratic--it has something to do with putting oxygen in the system, [which] is being suffocated," he said.

Kemp also censured the current welfare system, which he said perpetuates poverty.

"Somewhere between the elitist left and the elitist Social Darwinism [of the right] there has to be a better way of spreading ownership," he said.

He said the welfare systems is based on erroneous ideas about those receiving benefits: "that they're going to be perpetually poor, that they don't respond to rewards and that they don't want to improve their lot in life."

The current welfare laws, which discourage recipients from working or saving assets, must be changed, Kemp said.

"Welfare is designed for consumption, not accumulation of assets," he said. "The system has to be open to protecting the right of people to own property and get an accumulation of assets."

"If they can bring perestroika to downtown Moscow, don't you think we can bring it to Boston?" he added.