The Democrats failed policies and their refusal to change course

[P@triot]

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results each time. For 50 years, Democrat policy has spent us into collapse and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. Not even a pitiful 5% decrease in poverty for that unfathomable sum of tax payer money.

Despite spending nearly $20 trillion since the War on Poverty began (on January 8, 1964), the poverty rate remains nearly as high today as it was in the mid-1960s. Today, government spends nearly $1 trillion annually on 80 federal means-tested programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care and targeted social services for poor and low-income Americans. Clearly, policymakers can’t hide behind reams of programs and billions in spending and declare they’ve done their duty to the poor. Good intentions aren’t enough.

War on Poverty at 50: How to Fight Poverty -- and Win

 

[P@triot]

Most discussion of government spending and deficits assumes that the federal budget consists of four principal parts: entitlements (meaning Social Security and Medicare), defense, non-defense discretionary spending, and interest. This perspective is misleading because it ignores the hidden welfare state: a massive complex of 79 federal means-tested anti-poverty programs.

The public is almost totally unaware of the size and scope of government spending on the poor. This is because Congress and the mainstream media always discuss welfare in a fragmented, piecemeal basis. Each of the 79 programs is debated in isolation as if it were the only program affecting the poor. This piecemeal approach to welfare spending perpetuates the myth that spending on the poor is meager and grows little, if at all.

The piecemeal, fragmented character of the hidden welfare system makes rational policy-making and discussion impossible. Sound policies to aid the poor must be developed holistically, with decision makers and the public fully aware of the magnitude of overall spending.

Examining the Means-tested Welfare State