Today, Democrats in Congress are tripping over each other to remind everyone that it has been 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson “empowered America’s poor” by declaring a “War on Poverty.”
No, really. These numnuts think the ineffective War on Poverty is something to be proud of:
The #WarOnPoverty was the most ambitious, determined&successful campaign to reduce poverty since the Great Depression
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 8, 2014
LBJ's #WarOnPoverty was about securing equality of opportunity. 50 yrs later inequality is at an all time high http://t.co/aEu9pKOd3A
— Jim Moran (@Jim_Moran) January 8, 2014
LBJ declared #WarOnPoverty 50yrs ago. Let's honor it by protecting anti-poverty prgms(ie #SNAP/Medicare)&give opportunities to all Americans
— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) January 8, 2014
Joining my House colleagues and Lynda Johnson Robb to commemorate #WarOnPoverty50th. Our work is not finished! pic.twitter.com/gDChU4a4Cm
— Rep. Bobby Scott (@BobbyScott) January 8, 2014
This morning I will be speaking on the 50th anniversary of the #WarOnPoverty #EndPoverty
— Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (@RepEBJ) January 8, 2014
50 yrs ago, Pres. LBJ began "War on Poverty." The goal was simple: In the richest country ever, allow no American to go hungry, or homeless.
— Rep. Tony Cárdenas (@RepCardenas) January 8, 2014
Today we part the 50th anniversary of the #WarOnPoverty. Today, there are many in this house destroying that progress.
— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) January 8, 2014
Today is the 50th anniversary of Pres. Johnson's War on Poverty. Let's keep the fight going, and start by extending unemployment insurance
— Jim Langevin (@JimLangevin) January 8, 2014
What LBJ called for 50 yrs ago was a War on Poverty. By slashing food/nutrition support, the Tea Party GOP is waging a War on the Poor.
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) January 8, 2014
The Dems even hauled out one of LBJ’s daughters to pay tribute to her “conservative” daddy:
"Daddy," says Lynda Bird Johnson Robb as she remembers the 50th anniversary of LBJ's War on Poverty pic.twitter.com/dcZx2FbRKo
— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) January 8, 2014
Lynda Bird Johnson Robb: 'Daddy was a conservative' – at #WarOnPoverty 50th @StephlGreen on Capitol Hill for #PoliticalCapital
— Mark Silva (@NewsmanSilva) January 8, 2014
Unfortunately, the “War on Poverty” hasn’t reduced poverty — at least not according to the Tea Party wacko statisticians at the U.S. Census Bureau. Via Forbes:
In 1966, the poverty rate was 14.7% and falling. $20 trillion later it is 16%. We could have flushed that money and had a better result
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) January 8, 2014
Despite spending nearly $20 trillion since the 60s, the poverty rate remains nearly the same. http://t.co/CNDTJYFIh1 #WaronPoverty
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) January 8, 2014
Prez Johnson declared War on Poverty 1/8/1964; poverty rate 15%. 2012 Census; 15% of Americans living in poverty. Another failed war~
— D.A. Nygaard (@Danofhope) January 8, 2014
https://twitter.com/JulianGotovac/status/420946773004144640
Lyndon Johnson announced his war on poverty in Martin County, Ky. 50 years later, the poverty rate there is 35%. A great liberal success.
— MikeBates (@MikeBates) January 8, 2014
Even the Census Bureau’s “new and improved” Democrat-friendly measure of poverty shows only a three percentage point decline between 1967 and 2012, according to the liberals at Mother Jones magazine. That’s what we’re supposed to be celebrating?
Here’s a little-known fact that Sen. Durbin and his Democrat colleagues don’t want you to know: The most dramatic reduction in poverty during the last 65 years occurred in the 15-year period before LBJ announced the War on Poverty.
AEI’s Charles Murray explains:
Stunning progress in reducing poverty–ignored because it preceded the War on Poverty. http://t.co/HNA7Xxirui
— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) January 8, 2014
In just the 15 years between 1949 and 1964, the American poverty rate had dropped by 22 percentage points. What had the government done to help? By the definition of the 1960s and thereafter, nothing. The federal government sponsored no education programs for the disadvantaged. No training programs. No jobs programs. No community action. No affirmative action. No Head Start. No welfare whatsoever for men, and only a stingy cash payment for unmarried mothers, hedged with restrictions. The federal government was missing in action in the real war against poverty — and yet somehow America cut poverty by more than half.
Poor liberals. They can’t show that LBJ’s “War on Poverty” reduced poverty. So what do they do? Why, they change the start date, of course!
War on Poverty lowered elderly poverty rate to 9% in '12 from 35% in '59 http://t.co/I5EkmlCaEA
— Jesse Eisinger (@eisingerj) January 5, 2014
Bright spot in the "war on poverty" – fed programs cut poverty rate for seniors from 35% in 1959 to 9%: http://t.co/dspQ0i60X1 @annielowrey
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) January 5, 2014
1959. When Dwight Eisenhower was in office.
Cute trick, but it’s getting a bit old.
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