of the advocacy group "policylink"; lawrence mead, professor of politics and public policy at new york university; and barbara perry, a senior fellow in the presidential oral history program at the university of virginia's miller center. angela glover blackwell, start with you. a general question first: how serious a problem is poverty in america today? >> poverty is a huge problem. it's a problem for the people who are in it and it's a problem for the nation. 15% of americans live below the poverty level. highest number since 1993. and 44% of those live below halve of the poverty level. that means for a woman with two children, that's less than $9,000 a year. on top of that, we have millions and millions of amecans-- 127 million-- who in three months of no job would live in poverty. poverty is a huge issue, it's getting worse and it should be very troubling to all of the american people, not just those who are living in poverty. >> brown: lawrence meade, you were an opponent of the real fair reform in the '90s. you don't hear much about poverty in our politics today. how would you fra