Why welfare, minimum wage make it harder for poor Americans to succeed

Foxnews.com

By John Stossel
Published October 08, 2014

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared “War on Poverty.” It sounded great to me.

I was taught at Princeton, “We’re a rich country. All we have to do is tax the rich, and then use that money to create programs that will lift the poor out of poverty.” Government created job-training programs for the strong and expanded social security for the weak.

It seemed to work. The poverty rate dropped from 17 percent to 12 percent in the programs’ first decade. Unfortunately, few people noticed that during the half-decade before the “War,” the rate dropped from 22 percent to 17 percent. Without big government, Americans were already lifting themselves out of poverty!

Johnson’s War brought further progress, but progress then stopped. It stopped because government is not good at making a distinction between needy and lazy. It taught moms not to marry the father of their kids because that would reduce their welfare benefits. Welfare invited people to be dependent. Some people started to say, “Entry-level jobs are for suckers.” Many could live almost as well without the hassle of work.

Despite spending an astonishing $22 trillion dollars, despite 92 different government welfare programs, poverty stopped declining. Government’s answer? Spend more!

Full story: Foxnews.com

Republican State Convention Straw Poll results are in

The results below probably will not come as a surprise - or maybe they will. 

176   Rand Paul
98     Ted Cruz
70     Scott Walker
62     Ben Carson
60     Chris Christie
57     Jeb Bush
37     Paul Ryan
26     Mike Huckabee
26     Condeleeza Rice
21     Marco Rubio
21     Write Ins