It is maddening to see Democrats cling to this long-held fantasy that the only way to combat poverty in America is by pouring more government dollars and interference into society. For more than six decades, this has been the case. It started with LBJ’s “war on poverty” speech during the 1964 State of the Union. Since then, we’ve wasted trillions of dollars following this misguided progressive strategy.
President Biden’s Build Back Better Act was yet another attempt on this front, with its wasteful Child Tax Credit. Instead of helping children, as Democrats claimed, it would have only encouraged more Americans to avoid work. If it wasn’t for West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) taking a stand and derailing the Biden’s legislative lynchpin, U.S. taxpayers would have seen billions of their hard-earned dollars thrown away.
What it’s done, more than anything, is undermine faith and religion. Those two elements are bedrocks of our country, “a nation under God.” Yet by pushing to have government become the dominant force in the lives of its citizens, Democrats are tearing away at the importance of religion in our daily lives. Our first president, George Washington, warned against that in his farewell address.
“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion,” he said.
Yet here we are in 2021, where the latest studies show fewer than half of Americans consider themselves religious.
Instead of pursuing these destructive policies that do more harm than good, liberals should instead look at the theory espoused years ago by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution, called the “Success Sequence.”
The success sequence consists of three steps in behavior to avoid poverty.
Complete at least a high school education, work full time, and wait until age 21 before getting married and then having children.
According to testimony of Haskins in 2012 before the U.S. Senate, those following the “success sequence” have a 2% chance of being in poverty and a 75% chance of reaching the middle class.
But the success sequence doesn’t much interest progressives because the focus is about individuals taking personal responsibility for their lives in a free country.
The “personal responsibility” part and the “free country” part have little standing in the Democratic Party.
Personal responsibility. Imagine that. If only the progressives who claim to care about this country and are trying to push us into socialism would open their eyes and see how that is a much better policy to pursue.
