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War on Poverty has millions of prisoners

Written by Allen West on January 11, 2014

This week was the 50th anniversary of the American “War on Poverty” — well, actually the progressive socialist war on minorities and families.

When you consider the trillions of dollars spent and the return on investment, it hasn’t been just a failure, it’s been an absolutely abysmal failure.

And President Obama came out this week to talk about more government spending by way of “promise zones.” It is the liberal progressive way to throw more money at a problem and thereby illustrate insanity: “to continue to do the same thing and expect different results.”

This is why we have an explosion in the federal debt, now approaching $18 trillion. Ever since President Johnson, there has been this idea that government can solve every social ill. The result is an expansive, as well as invasive and intrusive government that now has no limits, no parameters and no restraints upon its perceived powers.

Yes, we must protect those who are truly in need, but under this Obama administration we have seen a deliberate effort to expand poverty and the number of Americans requiring aid and assistance. Why?

Well, this week excerpts from former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ book gave insight into a president for whom everything seems to be political.

Can it be that creating a dependency society benefits the progressive objective? Gee, you think? After all, why would a prosperous American citizenry require government largesse to assist them in their livelihood?

Fifty years later we’re not just losing the war on poverty, we are witnessing a political objective to expand poverty as a “means to an end.”

Lyndon Johnson may have had good intentions, (I would debate that), but he certainly would be astonished to see the enormous growth of the welfare nanny-state which he commissioned.

Just consider this factoid, in 50 years we have gone from 6 percent single parent households to 42 percent nationally, with 72 percent in the black community. That is evidence not of a victory, but a self-inflicted sucking chest wound, upon which we’re sticking a bandaid.

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  • YelowJezamin

    Lyndon Johnson would not be surprised at the growth of his Welfare State; this is exactly what was intended. Ex.ACT.ly.

  • mooncrater308

    Upon which we are pretending to stick a Band-aid.

  • James Jordan

    People, (via our fantastic education system) have been brainwashed to believe that the fastest way to reach land is by drilling holes in the bottom of the boat

  • Wilecoyote

    If you looked at any socialist states, to maintain your hold on power, you have a trough of “poor”, depending on everything from government and are scared shitless every election by those in power. Look at the socialist state to the south, Venezuela - now, to stop inequality, the government forced business owners to charge only from their list for items, regardless how much it cost you for the items. We are heading that way, all the BS government freebies take something from someone by force to give it to another group.

  • Phoebe

    This whole country is going to meltdown. We have dollars that are not
    backed by gold. China has been buying tons of gold. US corporations have been
    buying their own stock, making the market look good. Big banksters like Soros
    and J.P.Morgan are selling all of their stocks in some of their holdings. We
    have little industry to produce things that other countries will buy, since our companies have gone to China, Mexico, India, etc.
    Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have created their own bank (BRICS) to get away from the US dollar reserve currency, because it is pretty much
    worthless. The FDIC is no longer insuring our deposits in our banks. It is NOT
    “our” money anymore. When a bank starts to fail, like in Cyprus, the bank will
    take our deposits as a bail in. Whatever paper cash we have in our pockets will
    be worthless. and very few of us have gold and silver at home.
    This information came from three finance experts on The Hagmann
    and Hagmann Report, January 10th.

    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cfp-radio/2014/01/11/the-coming-bank-bail-ins-wealth-confiscation-economic-collapse

    Anyone else listen to that show? This is way worse than the Great
    Depression. We have a huge part of the population that can’t even grow their own
    food. We are in dire straights and most of us have no idea. I never would have thought that America would become destitute and turn into a second world country,

    http://www.thedailyeconomist.com/2012/03/dollar-losing-ground-in-brics-nations.html

    http://www.thedailyeconomist.com/2013/11/china-markets-on-verge-of-bypassing.html

  • GaylePutt

    Exactly. I have often felt that government, either intentionally or through incompetence, just keeps “treating the disease” instead of curing it. America will soon resemble a mummy with bandages everywhere that are sucking the life out of our nation.

    • Vueiy

      More so than that, government is only pretending to treat the SYMPTOMS, not even the disease itself.

  • Cynthia Matthews

    Government cannot create wealth, but it can take wealth away by regulating things so that people cannot do business, and it can put people out of business. The way government can create jobs is by protecting the freedoms Americans need to go about the activities that provide for a good standard of living. Economy is people, not government. Economy is people, buying, selling, working, playing doing. When government intrudes on these activities of people it stops the functions of our very survival. Give people back their freedom and our economy will boom!

  • 4MeNoRinos

    We needed long ago to put a end to welfare as we know it, it can easily be done, but the left refuses to help work on that. Lifetime caps on welfare, 5 years total,, they need to go to classes to learn how to get a job , keep a job, we need to train people for jobs. Most of all we need smaller Government, less regulation and more jobs, we can have them also, especially if we vote well 2014, 2016. We need the right people in Government.

  • Lonnie Bedell

    Power & control. The more people think they need the government to do anything, the more power government bureaucrats have over us. It isn’t about helping people and never has been.

  • jaswim

    I agree with everything in this article, but there is one factor that both parties are to blame for that was left out and I believe has also contributed significantly to the rise in the gap between rich and poor. Too many of our manufacturing jobs have been sent overseas by greedy CEO’s who want to use cheaper labor so they can get richer, but in the process it has since limited the number of descent paying jobs available. Then there are the illegal aliens who take jobs away from Americans as well and once again it’s so employers can get away with paying less. Furthermore, this nonsense about illegals only taking jobs that Americans won’t do anyway is a lot nonsense made be those responsible looking for an excuse. Where were the Republicans and Democrats when all our jobs were being shipped off and why did neither party try and put a stop to this job killer.Too many Americans are now working in low paying service sector jobs. Not everyone can be an engineer, doctor, accountant, etc…It doesn’t mean their not intelligent, nor does it mean their not hard working. Their talents and intelligence are just in other areas. Until manufacturing and even telemarketing jobs are brought back to this country the number of poor in this country is going to continue to grow. Not only is Obama not addressing this issue, but he is also destroying the coal industry and putting them out of work. I can only hope that our next President will do something to help create more jobs in this country and it would also be nice if our greedy CEO’s would bring some of our jobs back. Not only would it bring more opportunities, but it would be nice to read “Made in America” again.

    • jaswim

      Guessing the down number I received was from one of those greedy CEO’s who puts his/her money before the welfare of other American’s or someone who supports this practice.

    • MotherBatherick

      I agree with most of your post however, I don’t look at all corporations as necessarily being “evil and greedy”. If their costs to abide by laws and regulations that have been voted in over the years weren’t so expensive here in the USA, more of them would stay and employ people in the USA. In other words, I doubt very much that someone would start a business and if given a choice, would choose to pay high fees to be in business compared to paying lower fees. They’ll go wherever it cost less. People do the same thing when they go shopping at a store.

      We need to give corporations incentives to stay here and one way would be to lower their cost of doing business -we should want THEM to prosper so that WE may prosper (from jobs, lower prices at the stores, etc…).

    • Frank E. Licata

      Jobs get sent overseas when unions force the companies to do so.

      • jaswim

        I will agree that is a big part of the problem, however, I think there are many instances when a union is not involved. I am very anti-union as I feel they too have contributed to the loss of our jobs.

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