Rhetorical devices

Direct references and allusions

At the beginning of the article, we encounter a direct reference to a report called “Expanding Work Requirements in Non-Cash Welfare Programs”, which was released by the Council of Economic Advisers in July 2018 (ll. 4-6). The reference helps the writer provide context for her article. She also includes a link to the report, allowing readers to inform themselves further on the findings of the report.

Trump’s administration, Covert argues, is “declaring victory in the war on poverty launched a half-century ago” (ll. 7-8). The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation introduced in the US in 1964 by US President Lyndon B. Johnson. The legislation created a series of programs meant to improve people’s access to healthcare and education as measures to reduce the national poverty rate which, at the time, was at around 19%.

In the article, we can also find a direct reference to the welfare reform of the 1990s: “Congress passed welfare reform in 1996; now, poor people have to leap over a number of hurdles to get help” (ll. 55-56). This refers to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which reduced federal aid to impoverished people and imposed work requirements on those seeking state benefits.

The direct reference to the Great Recession (ll. 24-25) helps the writer highlight that the consumption-only method used by the administration to measure poverty is faulty. In ...

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