Jan. 13, 2014-Addressing the
"Social Mobility Summit" at The Brookings Institution, Rep. Paul Ryan
(R-WI) emphasized the need to "reintegrate the poor into our
communities." "How do we bring in the poor?" Ryan asked.
Ryan said that there is perhaps no greater example of government's
ability to disappoint and to miss the mark than LBJ's war on
poverty. "We have displaced community," Ryan said. What is
needed, he said, are simplicity and standards. Ryan said the
"haphazard wack-a-mole approach" and "alphabet soup" of programs should
be replaced. He cited the example of Great Britain, where the
government is replacing six separate programs with a Universal Credit;
although the effort has encountered rough going, Ryan said it is a move
in the right direction. Ryan said states should have more
control; although there will be "howls of protest" from certain
corners, he said we must ask if the current approach is working or
not. "We need to listen to the people we're trying to help," Ryan
stated. He has been doing just that; as the Washington Post's Laurie Montomery
reported in November, Ryan "has been quietly visiting inner-city
neighborhoods with ...[an] old Kemp ally, Bob Woodson." (>)
Ryan
said
"we
need
all
hands on deck" to confront poverty. "For
too, long too many people have watched this from a distance," Ryan said.
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