29/07/2025
This week on Coup Save America with Sean St. Heart, we welcome child welfare veteran, author, and policy reform advocate Lance Hillsinger for a vital conversation on America’s enduring—and worsening—poverty crisis. Despite decades of government intervention and reform, more Americans live in poverty today than when the War on Poverty began in the 1960s. In fact, more people now live below the poverty line than lived in the entire country when the Statue of Liberty was erected.
Drawing on his 34 years as a child welfare social worker and author of Build a Better Bridge: Social Policy for the 21st Century, Hillsinger takes us through the tangled history of government safety nets, from Civil War-era aid to modern programs like TANF, SNAP, and the ACA. But as he argues, these programs—while essential—are no longer enough. Homelessness persists. Food banks are overwhelmed. Upward mobility is stagnant. And the root causes of poverty remain largely unaddressed.
In this episode, we’ll unpack the urgent need to fine-tune America’s safety net by expanding TANF education exemptions, recalibrating food stamp allocations to reflect children’s real nutritional needs, and treating mixed-nationality families with fairness and dignity. We’ll also examine how gender disparities in education and outdated English curricula are contributing to long-term poverty and social dysfunction.
Hillsinger makes a compelling case for reforming child support laws so low-income fathers aren’t discouraged from working above-board jobs, and for rewriting tax codes to promote homeownership and shared equity—particularly for public servants like teachers and law enforcement officers. He also shines a light on the childcare crisis and proposes innovative tax incentives to reverse the alarming decline in childcare providers.
Together, we’ll explore how deeply entrenched policies—many well-intentioned—are failing to meet the realities of modern poverty in an era of explosive population growth and economic inequality. What would it take to truly reduce poverty and the cascading social ills it produces—truancy, child abuse, crime, and homelessness? Hillsinger believes the answer lies not in partisan posturing but in practical, humane, and data-driven solutions—both inside and outside of government.
Don’t miss this far-reaching conversation about what it really means to care for the vulnerable in 21st-century America—and how we can build a better bridge toward equity, opportunity, and social justice.
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