Includes bibliographical references and index.

Water, water everywhere: perspectives on poverty in the United States -- The other America / Jonathan Alter -- The changing face of poverty in America / William E. Spriggs -- Poverty row / Jeffrey M. Jones -- Poverty is back / Ezra Klein -- We don't need another war on poverty / Stephen Malanga -- Welfare since reform: is it still relevant -- How welfare reform worked / Kay S. Hymowitz -- Using carrots and sticks / Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill -- Is welfare working / Jonathan Walters -- Unfinished business / Thomas Massaro -- Welfare aid isn't growing as economy drops off / Jason DeParle -- The Medicaid and SCHIP debates -- Reforming Medicaid / John C. Goodman and Devon M. Herrick -- Something of value / Gary Enos -- SCHIP and beyond / Jonathan Walters -- An immoral philosophy / Paul Drugman -- Sleepwalking toward DD-Day / George F. Will -- Boost for SCHIP / Jennifer Lubell -- Feeding America's hungry: food stamps/supplemental nutrition assistance program -- Hungry in America / Trudy Lieberman -- Reflections on the food stamp program / Bonny O'Neil -- Food stamps and obesity / Michele Ver Ploeg and Katherine Ralston -- Food stamps / America -- Hunger hysteria / Robert Rector -- Farm Act makes it easier for food assistance households to save / Margaret Andrews -- Improving food choices: can food stamps do more / Joanne F. Guthrie -- Balancing nutrition, participation, and cost in the national school lunch program / Constance Newman, Katherine Ralston, and Annette Clauson -- Other issues: housing, disability, and early childhood education -- Are shelters the answer to family homelessness / Ralph da Costa Nunez and Laura M. Caruso -- As program moves poor to suburbs, tensions follow / Solomon Moore -- Disability cases last longer as backlog rises / Erik Eckholm -- Embracing the exiles / The Forward -- Starting right / Joan Lombardi -- For Head Start, a marathon run / Linda Jacobson and Daniel Sheehan --