GOP revs up war on the poor: As elections loom, Capitol Hill is latest front in war on poverty

[LuckyTheDog]

WASHINGTON — The war on poverty returns to Capitol Hill as lawmakers prepare to wage a battle this week that's a likely preview of what's to come on the campaign trail this election year and in 2016.

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared his intent "not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it," key congressional Republicans and prospective Republican presidential candidates are hammering away at some of his Great Society programs. They label them well-meaning failures that have done more to strain the federal budget than to slow the cycle of poverty.

House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is expected to continue the theme Wednesday when his committee convenes for an update on Johnson's goal, a follow-up on a scathing report on Washington's anti-poverty efforts that Ryan unveiled last month.

"For too long, we have measured compassion by how much we spend instead of how many people we get out of poverty," Ryan said in a statement last month. "We need to take a hard look at what the federal government is doing and ask, 'Is this working?'"

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/elections-loom-capitol-hill-latest-front-war-poverty/

[2pooped2pop]

1. higher minimum wage and not putting people in jail for pot would help a lot

When people go to jail, they usually lose their jobs making their family go on welfare. Some offenses that are sending people to jail, including the one for not showing up to court for a bill, are not worthy of causing that much destruction in the family.

[LuckyTheDog]

3. Obama's mass clemency plan is a good start...

... but it needs to go farther.

[2pooped2pop]

4. yeah lots farther

first it only applies to those who have been in jail for ten years. 10 days is enough for most to lose their jobs and send their family spiraling down.

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!!