President Barack Obama participated in a summit on poverty at Georgetown University Tuesday, and says there's no reason to think the nation can't fight the issue effectively.
Obama says the recent unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, has increased awareness of the problems associated with wealth inequality, and created an opening to focus new attention on solutions.
At Tuesday's forum, Obama said "it's a mistake'' to think efforts to stamp out poverty have failed and the government is powerless to address it.
Obama said there are programs that work all around the country, but the trick is to put them into place on a larger scale.
Tuesday's talk included Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government professor Robert Putnam, as well as Arthur Brooks, president of the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute.
The discussion was moderated by Washington Post columnist and Georgetown professor E.J. Dionne.
