The Associated Press reports that Census Bureau data due next week will show a record increase in the poverty rate. There is much that could be said about this--"poverty" isn't what it used to be--but what is interesting to me is how the AP ties the news to the Obama administration and the Democrats:
The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama's watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty. ...
It's unfortunate that the hope and change president is just the same old rehashed, failed liberal policies of old. According to the CATO Intsitute The federal government currently operates 122 different anti-poverty programs, ranging from Medicaid to the tiny Even Start Program for Indian Tribes and Tribal Organizations. All together, the federal government spent more than $591 billion in 2009 on means-tested or anti-poverty programs, and will undoubtedly spend even more this year. That amounts to $14,849 for every poor man, woman and child in America. Given that the poverty line is just $10,830, we could have mailed every poor person in America a check big enough to lift them out of poverty — and still saved money.
The Democrats, of course, are like the arsonist who works for the fire department. They will argue that soaring poverty demands more government spending. But if even the AP is onto them, they will have trouble selling that line.
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