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It doesn't seem to be the best way to get the American poor out of poverty. If it were, there would be far more economic mobility in the US.

Unfortunately the word 'poverty' here just doesn't mean the same thing at all. Most American's tagged as 'poor' or 'living in poverty' are pretty darn rich compared to global measurements of 'poverty'. Same word, different metrics.

Another confounding practice is that official US poverty statistics don't include many forms of government assistance. So a statement like '14% of American's live in poverty' is before this assistance. With this representation of data, you could give those 14% $10,000/month in government benefits and they would still be 'living in poverty'.

Here is a nice calculator you can play 'what if' measurement games with to see how it affects the poverty rate: http://uspovertydata.com/povcal/index.php

A quick google search shows there isn't a consensus on that argument.

And also the single biggest contributor to carbon emmissions. Lets decouple these and fix the bad one.