Afghanistan… no not that war… Iraq… no, no not that one… Libya… not that one either… must be Yemen, right? Nope it’s the longest most expense war in American history and like the most expensive war in the history of the world, it’s the War on Poverty.
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 [NOTE - this is a 2004 number it's likely well over $10 or $11 trillion today] have poured into this program that gave a handout rather than a handup to those who were desperately in need. All that occurred 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.
In 1965 the poverty rate in the Unite State was about 17%%… today 45 years and about $11 trillion dollars later it’s 14.3% I believe that can be called a complete and utter failure… a liberal failure (one of many). See some people will remain poor no matter what happens – have you ever seen some poor folks that win the lottery? Many blow through the money with nothing to show for it and are poor again in a matter of time. In fact a government study (so you know it honest </sarcasm>) I read recently stated that nearly one-third of all lottery winners become bankrupt. How? I don’t know… give me a few million bucks and I’ll vanish into thin air living quietly and comfortably on some remote island nation and I won’t give it to every sad sack story that comes along.
Anyway – the same goes for housing, some people are meant to only ever rent and other own – a house is a huge responsibility and some people are just not responsible enough to be a home owner or they live in an urban area where renting is a more practical choice. But the point is that the housing bubble was created by enabling people that should never buy a house to buy one this homes end up in forecloser and a burden to the taxpayer.
The liberal think you create prosperity by handing out checks and in reality they have created a dependent class with many content to be wards of the state. The government has wasted trillions helping the poor, billions more provided public housing that quickly falls into disrepair and crime ridden dystopia and this amounts does not include the trillions in bloated bureaucracy to dole out check and poorly manage all this infrastructure.
Congress says American are concerned with default when really the only people concerned with default are those given taxpayer money and even after passing this bad debt deal that the government burned up nearly all of it in one day there is still a fear of default. Obama has handed out billions and trillions to the mooching masses that would rather be wards of the state than independent adults.
Here are a few realities of the Obama presidency…
Food stamp use rises to record 45.8 million
Time to Say It: Double Dip Recession May Be Happening
The average income was $54,283, a drop of more than $3,500, or 6 percent, from 2008. That put the average income at its lowest level since 1997.
Va. Beach ponders approving homeless ‘tent city’
