The War on Poverty was Lyndon Johnson and the Democrat party’s bold step to fight this crippling social problem. After all, we were the most prosperous country in the world. How could a rich nation like the United States have poverty within its own borders? Unthinkable, yet true.
LBJ created Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The program became a way of life, a steadfastness of mediocrity with a push toward total dependency of the government by those who needed the most to survive. Nine trillion dollars have poured into this program that gave a handout rather than a handup to those who were desperately in need. All that occured was an increase on the number of those who sank further into poverty
In 1996, Bill Clinton was running toward the political center as he ran for his political life since he lost both houses of congress in 1994 to Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” AFDC became TANF which is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
This temporary aid of the 1996 reforms eliminated welfare’s “entitlement” status—ending the automatic “right” to benefits. If you are able-bodied and need assistance, you now have to get training or work to receive benefits. Since 1996, welfare is properly understood as temporary assistance in tough times, rather than as a way of life.
It worked, the welfare rolls shrank by 3.4 million people. In 2004 the Cato Institute had this to say about a study they conducted on poverty.
Since 2000, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (the traditional welfare program) spending has increased 6 percent. What did we get for that money? A higher poverty rate. Obviously a stagnant economy and poor job market are responsible for the increase in those living below the poverty line. However, spending more money on social programs is not raising them back out of poverty.
Jenifer Zeigler who wrote this report back in 2004 goes on to say..
The best way to reduce the poverty rate is to convince people to avoid poverty in the first place by finishing school, delaying parenthood, and getting a job (any job). High school dropouts are roughly three times more likely to end up in poverty than are those who complete at least a high school education. A common reason why teens drop out of high school is out-of-wedlock births. Teenage pregnancy initiates a single mother into a life of dependency that is difficult to overcome, especially if she goes on to have additional children. Over half of welfare money is spent on families that began with a teen birth.
Getting a job as a solution to poverty may seem like common sense. Granted, not every job pays a wage that will catapult a family into the middle class. However, every job provides job experience, and that leads to a better job. Maybe today’s minimum-wage, service industry employee is not on a track for management. But he is showing that he is a reliable worker who can learn and perform duties, something a future employer will value.
Despite all this common sense, Democrats refuse to endorse welfare reform that would emphasize actual work experience. They would spend money to send single moms to college or train them in a specific skill for which there may be no demand in the job market.
It is a fact of life in America that the liberals have no intention of seeing people succeed on their own. Their(liberals) number one goal for all Americans is to have them depend on the government for all of their earthly needs from cradle to grave. They will even think for you.
If liberals can get health care pushed through and made into law then their party is well on their way to controlling the process and procedure of the course this country will take as it slides into the bucket of 3rd rate countries like our European partner the UK.
Poverty is a horrible experience for a child to have to experience. Government run Health Care will be a more horrible experience that the whole country will have to experience.
Why the government thinks (oxymoron of the day) that they can do a better job and less expensive than the professionals at insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospitals is beyond normal thinking.
Talk about poverty. When Obama and the liberals get control of healthcare, people all across America will experience a poverty like no other.
Related posts:
- If You Think Health Care is Broken Now- Just Wait till Uncle Sam gets a hold of it!
- If you are Uninsurable, 6 Months is the designated wait time for life threatening care
- If liberals are mad now, just wait till November
- The Unvarnished Truth behind Obama’s Health care.
- Obama’s Poverty of Leadership and Experience is destroying our country