Rebecca Vallas on Poverty Denialism

“Just remember that what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not happening,” said the President of the United States this week to a group of veterans. It was a statement eerily reminiscent of the quote from George Orwell’s 1984, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.” It was also yet another example of gaslighting, a term derived from the 1938 Patrick Hamilton play “Gas Light” that’s used to describe efforts to manipulate someone’s perception of reality. It’s, of course, a term with which more and more of us are becoming familiar as of late since we seem to be getting a consistently unhealthy dose of gaslighting under the current Administration. Recently, the White House Council of Economic Advisers published a report that essentially declared poverty in this country a thing of the past. This week on Sea Change Radio, we discuss the ins and outs of this latest gaslighting special with Rebecca Vallas, the vice president for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress. Vallas explains what’s at the root of the report, who it really targets and why it should be concerning to all of us.