Helping The Poor In America

As we heard Emperor Pinocchio Veto Obama call for higher taxes and more government spending in his State of the Union Address, we should recognize that Trillions of dollars have been spent to eliminate poverty in America, since 1965 and today we have the highest poverty rate in three decades.  The Black unemployment rate, in particular, is double the White unemployment rate.   50 million Americans are on Food Stamps and Welfare, up 20 million since Obama was first elected.  10 million Americans are collecting Disability Benefits, that come right out of the Social Security Trust Fund, up 2 million since Obama first took office.  So clearly, big government, borrow, tax and spend poverty programs do not work and actually make matters worse.

Instead, we need the forces of Free Market Capitalism to help the poor in America through economic development and more job creation.  It will not happen any other way.  And, to be clear, those that are mentally or physically disabled and or senior citizens, left with nothing by the time they need to be in a nursing home near the end of life, should be cared for, though it may be possible to help the mentally or physically disabled find meaningful work to enhance their self worth.   Our problem is really the able bodied poor that either won't work, or can't find work because they lack marketable job skills.  Government programs that cause these people to stay on the dole for years have to be modified to encourage work, not just to get them off the dole because it would be better for them to be engaged in something, anything productive.

Education is the key to a better life.  Parents of kids in failing public schools in poor areas should have the option of School Choice to send their kids to private schools, just like many of the Socialist politicians that refuse to allow for School Choice, including President Obama and his wife Michelle.  It is time to put the kid's interests above the interests of the Teacher's Unions.  Poor kids that do well in school already have access to free or highly subsidized college or university education.  The same needs to happen related to vocational education, for kids that are not college bound, so that all kids leave school with a trade, or marketable job skill.  We also must end a Welfare system that rewards single Mom's for having kids out of wedlock, which is a sure road to poverty.  In the process, men who father multiple children with many different women must face some legal consequence, including jail time, if they don't take responsibility for their children.      

Welfare for able bodied Americans must be turned into Workfare and be limited to no more than three years.  These people must be asked to either work 20 hours a week to clean up their own communities and or go to school to learn a trade.  Those that refuse should be cut off from Welfare.  I know, I know, it sounds cruel; but what is really cruel is that we have created a permanent under class in America with a lack of positive role models in our inner cities.  We saw those people rioting and looting in Ferguson, Missouri to protest the death of a thug who attacked a police officer.  So much for our current poverty programs that do not work. 

This is about giving able bodied poor people a hand up, not a hand out.  And, though as a percentage of their population, there are more Black people on Welfare and Food Stamps than White people, in real terms, there are more White people on Welfare and Food Stamps than any other race, so this is not a racial issue.  We have to create jobs in America by economic growth.  To do so, we must reform our tax code to encourage investment in the United States.  The poor are not poor because the rich are rich, as contended by Socialists.  The poor are poor because they lack marketable job skills and because Middle Class jobs are being destroyed by over regulation and stupid tax laws.  Until we get our house in order and reform the tax code and various poverty programs, we will continue to have a high poverty rate.  Obviously, what we are doing now is not working.  It is what it is.