Capitol Hill Briefing 

# The American Welfare State: How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty — And Fail 

##### Watch the Event 

[![QuickTime](/weekly/quicktime.gif)](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2012/chb-05-14-12.mp4)[Watch the Event in QuickTime (M4V)](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2012/chb-05-14-12.mp4) 
[![ipod](/images/icons/ipod.jpg)](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2012/chba-05-14-12.mp3)[Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3)](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2012/chba-05-14-12.mp3) 

Join the conversation on X using [\#CatoEvents](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoEvents). Follow [@CatoInstitute](https://x.com/catoinstitute) on X to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.

Date and Time 

May 14, 2012 12 - 1 PM EDT 

Location 

385 Russell Senate Office Building 

Share This Event 

##### Featuring 

Featuring **Michael Tanner**, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; moderated by **Heather Curry**, Manager, External Affairs, Cato Institute. 

This year, the federal government will spend more than $668 billion on at least 126 different programs to fight poverty; welfare spending by state and local governments adds an additional $284 billion. Clearly we are doing something wrong, as the poverty rate is now at the highest level in nearly a decade. Join us to hear Cato senior fellow Michael Tanner discuss his new paper, “[The American Welfare State: How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty — And Fail](https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/american-welfare-state-how-we-spend-nearly-$1-trillion-year-fighting-poverty-fail?utm_source=Cato+Institute+Emails&utm_campaign=6d883a5e1c-Cato_Today&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=6d883a5e1c&mc_eid=%5bUNIQID%5d),” and whether it is time to reevaluate our approach to fighting poverty.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).