Conservative scholar blasts Marco Rubio’s ‘extraordinarily bad’ anti-poverty proposal

[DonViejo]

By Arturo Garcia
Wednesday, January 8, 2014 22:05 EST

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) faced early opposition to his proposal on Wednesday to let states take over the administration of government benefit programs, including a scathing indictment from a senior scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“The idea that what you want to do is collect money at the federal government level and hand it out to states is the exact wrong way to produce conservative policies,” Robert Rector told Buzzfeed.

As CNN reported, Rubio unveiled his proposal in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room on the 50th anniversary of the former president’s call for the U.S. to fight an “all-out war on human poverty,” arguing that the programs enacted to do so had failed Americans.


“We have to focus on policies that help our economy create those jobs and policies that help people overcome the obstacles between them and those jobs,” Rubio said. “The ‘war on poverty’ accomplished neither of these two things.”

Rubio did not name which specific programs he wants to hand over to state control, instead calling for them to be replaced with a “revenue-neutral flex fund,” as well as replacing the Earned Income Tax Credit with “a federal wage enhancement” for certain low-income jobs.

“This would allow an unemployed individual to take a job that pays, say, $18,000 a year, which on its own is not enough to make ends meet, but then receive a federal enhancement to make the job a more enticing alternative to collecting unemployment insurance,” Rubio said.

But Rector dismissed both ideas, telling Buzzfeed that the fund was “an extraordinarily bad idea” and arguing that the subsidy “doesn’t really change much of anything.”

Instead, Rector said, the party should avoid the argument over income inequality — a key Democratic Party talking point as the 2014 midterm elections approach — and focus on job creation.

“The war on poverty has been a complete catastrophe because welfare discourages work and sabotages marriage,” Rector said. “And what you need to do is fix those problems.”

Watch CNN’s report on Rubio’s proposal, aired on Wednesday, below.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/08/conservative-scholar-blasts-marco-rubios-extraordinarily-bad-anti-poverty-proposal/

###

Full article posted with the permission of Raw Story

[Mass]

1. He is attacking from the right of Rubio and says welfare should not exist.

Just in case some here think he says Rubio's proposal is not progressive enough.

“The war on poverty has been a complete catastrophe because welfare discourages work and sabotages marriage,” Rector said. “And what you need to do is fix those problems.”

[4Q2u2]

2. Apples to Oranges

This so-called scholar is confusing an economic program with social constructs. He is also using the "Lie of Welfare" and shows he truly does not know who the majority of welfare goes to. Finally, one does not even need a study to figure out that Welfare Recipients are not hording vast sums of cash and they are putting that money right back into the economy helping out the public as a whole. Why is it that these people have such a hard time understanding which way the money should flow. It is a lot easier to get one million people to spend a dollar then to get one person to spend a million dollars.

[Tippy]

3. I think Rubio blew his chance when he made a fool of himself taking a drink of water

Ever since that time he has had trouble speaking with any real authority, he looks and sounds like a kid with no idea of what he is trying to do or say.