AP: RNC chairman says Democrats, Republicans failing to address poverty

[steve2470]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says Martin Luther King Jr. would be disappointed with Republicans and Democrats for failing to address poverty.

Steele spoke Monday night at Philander Smith College, a historically black college in downtown Little Rock. Steele, who is black, said that political leaders have "focused on the wrong things" and need to address poverty in discussions ranging from health care to environmental issues.

Steele said that the Republican Party in the past "walked away" from the black community and needs to work harder to engage the black community.

http://www.kfsm.com/news/sns-ap-ar--steele-arkansas,0,5685664.story

[Gman]

1. Oh so NOW he's black

he just goes back and forth so easily.

[nini]

2. I bet ML King would be disappointed in him

.

[Xipe Totec]

3. The RNC is like a fly on the ass of a ox,

complaining that the furrows are not plowed straight.

[undeterred]

4. Does he have multiple personalities or what?

[sandnsea]

5. That needs a choking alert

Anybody who is eating or drinking when they click on this article is in danger of ending up on the floor, alternating between gagging and fits of laughter.

[Parche]

6. Corporate Poverty?

:sarcasm::sarcasm: :sarcasm: :hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I am not going to use the term I should be using

but this reads like the Onion

[aquart]

8. The Republicans have focussed on poverty.

They've created LOTS MORE of it.

[Historic NY]

9. exactly the statistics show it.

[msongs]

10. they are addressing corporate poverty...what more does he want? nt

[Lyric]

11. But they DID address poverty!

They passed PRWORA and made sure that poverty became more dangerous, more hidden, and more difficult to accurately track. They got poor people off the "welfare rolls" to much nationwide, bipartisan fanfare. But what happened to those people? Did they go out, get jobs, and become "productive citizens?" Nobody can really say for sure, because nobody's bothered to really check. Apparently, the plight of poor people isn't a governmental priority--go figure.

There have been a couple of agenda-driven, flawed "studies" done that showed former welfare recipients working at a higher rate, but they are hardly accurate or neutral. To be honest, those studies were done during the midst of an enormous economic boom, when jobs were plentiful, and even still, the promising numbers weren't really all that great. We have no idea how bad things really are for the poor now that the boom is over and the job supply is circling the drain. We probably WON'T know for a long time, because we're all too busy tending the bruises of the middle class to worry about the gut-shots to the working class.

PRWORA was SUPPOSED to be re-examined years ago, but Congress has put it off again and again. Poor people right now are living under draconian rules that were implemented when getting a well-paying job was relatively easy and the economy was vigorous and healthier than it had been for decades. Short-sighted idiots in both parties ate up the Reagan-era "welfare queen" mythos hook, line, and sinker. They BELIEVED that bullshit. They let Reagan convince them that anecdote WAS the singular for data...that because THEY might know a welfare recipient who appeared to be "gaming the system," then obviously LOTS of people were gaming the system. Now, when our country needs that safety net the MOST, it's gone. The American poor will pay for the small-minded gullibility of the American middle class.

God: if you exist, please save the poor from well-fed, comfortable, stupid, judgemental people in large numbers at the voting booth.