It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strange Champs.

Today, with election season around the corner and minimum wage increases on the ballot in many states,

we're checking in on just what it takes these days to make it in America.

And we'll start where these discussions so often do on the campaign trail.

Poverty is not a trait of character.

Today millions of American families are caught in circumstances beyond their control.

Their children will be compelled to live lives of poverty unless the cycle is broken.

Well, now if government planning and welfare had the answer, and they've had almost

30 years of it, shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of

people needing help?

Do they believe that poverty is suddenly going to disappear by magic?

Now, I am the son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother.

They both lived hard lives.

Dad grew up in poverty.

And after returning from Army service, he worked at the Breyer's ice cream plant in the 1950s.

He put himself through Rutgers University at night to become

the first in his family to earn a college degree.

In Washington, they call this the ownership society. But what it really means is that you're

on your own. Out of work, tough luck, you're on your own.

Born into poverty, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

Even if you don't have boots, you are on your own.

In Texas, we believe in the rugged individual.

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