Ryan Anti-Poverty Plan a Wolf in GOP Clothing, say Critics

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/07/25/ryan-anti-poverty-plan-wolf-gop-clothing-say-critics

?itok=_iYG4xRa

Congressman Paul Ryan's (R - Wisc.) new vision for how the Republican Party will address poverty in the United States is facing its strongest criticism from key people in the debate: the poor themselves and those who advocate on their behalf.

With inequality and financial hardship constituting top concerns among the U.S. public, Ryan appears to be taking on a populist, anti-poverty tone as he ascends to the leadership of the GOP. But economic justice advocates warn that Ryan's re-branded message masks the same old policies that attack the already-beleaguered safety nets for society's most vulnerable and dispossessed.

In a speech to the right-wing American Enterprise Institute delivered Thursday, Ryan unrolled a sweeping proposal for restructuring social services at a national level. The centerpiece is the "Opportunity Grant," which would consolidate nearly every key federal anti-poverty program—including food stamps and housing vouchers—into a single pool of money. That sum would then be handed to states that opt into a pilot program, effectively shifting the distribution of social services out of federal hands.

States would be tasked with delivering social services in partnership with what Ryan calls, "community groups"—a category that would include the for-profit sector. "The state welfare agency can’t be the only game in town," said Ryan. "People must have at least one other option, whether it’s a non-profit, a for-profit, what have you."

[MiniMe]

1. And then in a couple of years, they cut the grants

Don't leave that part. They wait for people to forget that there was a food stamp and housing voucher programs, and then they cut the grants out. So they take away the safety nets that the federal government provides and gives it to the states in a grant, and then the grant goes away.

Bastards

[Cresent City Kid]

2. The point of letting the states "decide"

is so that they can decide to gut programs and let people go hungry. In the competition of capitalism, they are trying to increase the reward for winning and increase the penalty for losing.

[CrispyQ]

3. I hate his mug almost as much as W's.

Seriously, both of them make me want to punch them. It's the smugness.

Now, I'll read the article & see what this arrogant shit is proposing.

on edit: Can I say again how much I can't stand this entitled little shit?

"My family does not struggle because we lack work ethic, which Paul Ryan’s new plan implies is the underlying cause of poverty in America," said Laffon Brelland, Jr., a Junior Writing Fellow at the Center for Community Change. " My family struggles because of poverty wages, which Ryan’s plan does nothing to rectify."

more...

For the past four years, Rep. Ryan has set forth budgets that get approximately two-thirds of their cuts from programs that help low- and moderate-income families. His most recent iteration, released in April 2014, would turn Medicare into a voucher, cause more than 40 million people to lose their health care coverage, kick up to 10 million people off of nutrition assistance, and starve the part of the budget that funds education, child care, the Head Start program, worker training, and housing. These savings would go toward financing new tax cuts primarily for millionaires and large corporations.

I think he might have a good shot at the repub candidacy, especially if Clinton is the dem pick. Young, white guy against older, woman. The media would eat it up.