Unless you read the Daily Beast or one of the far left websites, I doubt most of you have heard of Jamelle Bouie. Mr. Bouie is out today with a piece on a speech given by congressman Paul Ryan on the subject of poverty. He goes on at length about the philosophical differences between conservatives and liberals in considering how to deal with poverty, and he concludes that because of the philosophy, conservatives cannot properly combat poverty. The truth, however, is something different which is made clear by just one sentence in the article. Mr. Bouie describes Ryan's speech in part this way: "he sees existing anti-poverty programs as ineffective—despite evidence to the contrary—and the War on Poverty as a failure." That sentence actually says it all. Indeed, it only takes five words to sum everything up, "despite evidence to the contrary".
The simple truth is that there is no evidence that shows that anti-poverty programs as they have existed for the last fifty years have actually worked to reduce poverty. The current rate of poverty is higher than it was 40 years ago according to the figures of the government that Bouie holds so dear. That's right 40 years of poverty programs have not reduced the percentage of the population in poverty or the numbers of folks who live in poverty. In fact, there are more poor people today in America than 40 years ago. Consider that and then decide if the evidence shows that the poverty programs work.
What Bouie has actually illustrated clearly is that most liberals believe that poverty programs work despite clear evidence to the contrary. The problem is that what is important for most Americans is reality rather than philosophy. We have spent 50 years trying to cure poverty through liberal programs and have gotten no return on our twenty trillion dollar expenditure. Maybe we would do better to give conservative programs a try. Surely, we cannot do worse.
The simple truth is that there is no evidence that shows that anti-poverty programs as they have existed for the last fifty years have actually worked to reduce poverty. The current rate of poverty is higher than it was 40 years ago according to the figures of the government that Bouie holds so dear. That's right 40 years of poverty programs have not reduced the percentage of the population in poverty or the numbers of folks who live in poverty. In fact, there are more poor people today in America than 40 years ago. Consider that and then decide if the evidence shows that the poverty programs work.
What Bouie has actually illustrated clearly is that most liberals believe that poverty programs work despite clear evidence to the contrary. The problem is that what is important for most Americans is reality rather than philosophy. We have spent 50 years trying to cure poverty through liberal programs and have gotten no return on our twenty trillion dollar expenditure. Maybe we would do better to give conservative programs a try. Surely, we cannot do worse.
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