The gap between the rich and the poor in the US is growing, with over 40,000,000 Americans, including 16,000,000 children, struggling to obtain basic necessities.

Five decades ago, the issue of poverty was a serious challenge for the US, and the then President Lyndon Johnson launched what he called a "war on poverty".

By 1973 the US poverty rate was down to 11 percent. But today it has climbed up to 15 percent.

Over the past decade, the incomes of the richest Americans have grown by 86 percent, while the incomes of everyone else have grown at just a little over six percent.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from Washington DC.