• America has spent more on welfare than defense since 1993.
• The War on Poverty has cost $22 trillion -- Johnson's estimate of $970 million, not withstanding. This is three times more than what the government has spent on all wars in American history.
• Federal and state governments spend $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars on America's 80 means-tested welfare programs annually.
• One-third of all Americans receive benefits from at least one welfare program.

What has the United States gotten in return for all of this spending? It hasn't led to a drop in the poverty rate, which remains close to the same level it was when the War on Poverty began. 

First, the War on Poverty has failed to achieve Johnson’s goal: to strike “at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty.” Since he declared “unconditional war,” poverty has thumbed its nose at its would-be conquerors. The official poverty rate has hovered between ten and fifteen percent for fifty years. But that is only a part of the story. Since the 1960s, the institutions that contribute to self-sufficiency—namely, marriage and work—have declined. Today, more than 40 percent of children are born outside marriage; in 1964, only 7 percent were. (source)