Targeted anti-poverty measures are not as politically popular as measures aimed at helping the middle class. It is thus incumbent upon progressives to praise these measures when they are proposed. Otherwise you're just creating greater disincentives for politicians.

That doesn't mean you have to be uncritical. But, seriously, it can be an electoral killer for people to push to raise taxes &/or borrow money to address poverty. If you do not vocally support such proposals, you are adding to a disincentive structure.

The GOP is already gearing up to be like, "debt, debt, debt." And you know what's the first to go in such a situation? It's not going to be help for the middle class, I can tell you that much. There has to be vocal anti-poverty support from progressives.

We can't just leave a vacuum where a Tea Party movement is the loudest voice in the room, such that they (& the GOP establishment) wrap their racism in an anti-debt message & achieve massive electoral success. We have to be just as loud & to create real incentives for prog change

Basically, the worst situation I can imagine is where left-leaners deny any praise to Democrats for social safety net investment, other voters are disengaged, & the Tea Party rises up once again. You can & should be critical, but you also can't cede the rhetoric to anti-debters.