Each year, the United States spends $65,000 per poor family in the name of fighting poverty, yet the majority of that money actually goes to middle class and upper-middle class families. And despite this investment, the current U.S. poverty rate is higher than it was before the federal government began fighting the war on poverty.

"There have never been as many poor people in our country as there are now," says Philip F. Magano, former Bush administration "homelessness czar." The current number of families living in poverty today is the "highest number ever in the history of our country," he adds. They are living in "deep poverty," which is at least 50 percent below the nation's poverty line.

“One of the great indicators of homelessness is poverty,” Magano recently told Pajamas Media. “Poverty is the waystation before you fall into homelessness.” And with the economic indicators such as the unemployment rate stagnant as they have been, “you can anticipate more people falling into homelessness.”

A new book, "The Dependency Agenda," takes a close look at the hidden politics of the welfare state and examines historical evidence that suggests LBJ's "Great Society" was actually designed to maximize the number of Americans dependent upon the government. The welfare state was never meant to eliminate privation; it was created to keep Democrats in power, the book argues.

WATCH:

h/t Ben Shapiro