The War on Poverty

1965-2012

The “failure” of the War on Poverty

Last week [Ryan] released a report on the federal government's 50-year-old "War on Poverty" that concluded that many of the 92 federal programs aimed at assisting the poor were "haphazard" and contributed to a "poverty trap" that keeps people dependent on welfare benefits. Reuters 3/14/14

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Ryan also said the following:

• On March 12 on Morning in American he referred to a "tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value of work."

• “…federal programs are not only failing to address the problem. They are also in some significant respects making it worse.“

• “…we don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock

that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives…"

Rep. Paul Ryan