Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2013-2015: on Welfare & Poverty

Evan McMullin: Anti-poverty expenditures have done little since1960s

Basically politician-speak for: yes, we'll stick with welfare, but let's not have welfare programs that make people afraid of losing their benefits if they find a job.

Carly Fiorina: Progressive policies bad for poor that they claim to help

And the reality is the human impact of progressive policies is to keep people unemployed. We have record numbers of people who are no longer working or who have quit looking for work. We have record numbers of people on food stamps. We have record numbers of people living in poverty.

Jeb Bush: Poverty programs are ineffective, despite trillions spent

BUSH: No, to the contrary, I think we need to make our case to African-American voters that fixing a few big complex things will allow people to rise up. Six million more people are in poverty today than the day that Barack Obama got elected; 2,000 fewer dollars in disposable income for American families. We spend a trillion dollars a year on poverty programs and the net result is the percentage of people in poverty has remained the same. We should try something different: fix our schools, fix our economy, lessen the crime rates in the big urban areas and I think people in poverty could be lifted up.

John Kasich: There are moral and practical reasons to help the poor

KASICH: First of all, it's not about being a Christian--the Jewish and Christian principles of this country say basically the same thing. Look, I'm a public official, but I'm also a leader in terms of how this country ought to move. My sense is that it is important that we do not ignore the poor, the widowed, the disabled. I just think that's the way America is. And I think there's a moral aspect to it. In my state, there's not only a moral aspect where some people's lives have been saved because of what we've done, but it also saves us money in the long run.

John Kasich: Matthew 25 commands us to aid the less fortunate

For those in need of a New Testament refresher: In Matthew 25, Jesus admonishes his followers to aid the less fortunate. Kasich has cited the passage repeatedly of late in defending his ObamaCare-fueled Medicaid expansion--an act of Republican apostasy that prompted widespread dismay among his party brethren.

He gets back on track: "With this whole spiritual element, let's get away from the judgment side of it. I think it's actually what the Pope's trying to do. The Pope's saying, 'Why don't we get into the feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and helping the imprisoned and helping the lonely? That's what we're commanded to do. To me, this is a gift that I've been able to feel this way."

John Kasich: Reach out and help those who live in the shadows

Jeb Bush: 1994 Phoenix Project: end welfare culture

Under the plan, Florida would refuse to accept federal funds to aid the state's poor families, and restrict benefits to just two years of assistance. To be eligible for benefits, poor women would be required to "identify the fathers of their children, submit to random drug tests and work if jobs were available," according to a Herald story from March 1, 1994.

Bush's welfare plan was an early sign of the sharply conservative tone that would come to characterize his entire campaign.

Joe Biden: Americans don't want handouts, just to be given a chance

"Middle class means you get to own your home. It means you get to send your kid to a decent school, that if they do well and they want to go to college, you can afford to send them to college. It means being able to take care of your parents if they get sick. It means maybe being able to save enough so you hope your kids never have to take care of you."

The vice president responded to "pollsters" who he said claim the middle class no longer cares about owning a home or sending their kids to college: "The American people have not stopped dreaming. The American people have not walked away from what they believe they are entitled to. Just give them a chance--no handout, just give them a chance," Biden said. "Once you give Americans a chance they have never, never, never, never ever let their country down."

Paul Ryan: Switch from poverty management to get people out of poverty

RYAN: First of all, these programs don't work with each other. In many ways, they end up being counterproductive, because poverty is a complicated problem and it needs to be customized. And secondly, we had basically a poverty management system with respect to the federal government. If you want to have a healthy economy and have real solutions, you have to have a healthy safety net. And a safety net needs to work to get people out of poverty. So my argument here is let's not focus on input, how much money you spend. Let's focus on outcomes. Are we actually getting people out of poverty?

Paul Ryan: Customize benefits for each person, run by the states

RYAN: My argument is to focus on outcomes: Are we actually getting people out of poverty? And the best way to do that is to listen to people on the ground, the people who are fighting poverty person to person, and give them more flexibility in exchange for more accountability to actually get people out of poverty. We have learned good lessons about the right way to do this and not. And I would argue that we can customize the benefit to a person based on their particular needs which actually helps them get out of poverty long term. We've spend $800 billion every year on 92 different programs to fight poverty. Yet we have the highest poverty rates in a generation.

Paul Ryan: End dependency culture; end disincentives to work

RYAN (On Tape): We don't want a dependency culture. Our concern in this country is with the idea that more and more able-bodied people are becoming dependent upon the government than upon themselves and their livelihoods.

Q: What you seem to be saying is that people have a problem with their own dependency here that government is only furthering.

RYAN: That's not my intent. My point is we don't want to have a poverty management system that simply perpetuates poverty. We want to get at the root cause of the poverty to get people out of poverty. The federal government's approach has ended up maintaining poverty, managing poverty. In many ways, it has disincentivized people to going to work. In some cases, you lose more in benefits if you go to work. We need to reemphasize getting people up & on their lives and helping them give them the tools to do that. That's the point

Paul Ryan: Let charities & community groups compete to fight poverty

That would shift the federal government's anti-poverty role largely to one of vetting state programs to distribute aid, and they would have to give the poor a choice of providers. "There wouldn't just be a federal agency or a state agency," said Ryan. "Instead, they could choose from a list of certified providers. We're talking non-profits, or for-profits, or even community groups unique to your neighborhood."

Paul Ryan: Opportunity plan: flexible funds with benchmarks & timeline

There would be a time limit on assistance, and Ryan said the plan would need to show strong evidence of positive outcomes and poverty reduction, arguing such data is lacking in current programs.

Democrats and liberal policy groups bashed the plan before its release as a way to do away with programs that have formed the core of federal anti-poverty efforts since the 1960s.

Elizabeth Warren: Nobody should work full-time and still live in poverty

SEN. WARREN: Take a look at the House if you want to see what happens when Republicans take over. What are they on now, is this their fiftieth vote to repeal Obamacare? That's not how you run a country. We have real issues we need to deal with. Minimum wage, student loan debt, equal pay for equal work, a little accountability for the big financial institutions.

Q: Your fans say you're a populist, but your critics say you're just basically a socialist.

WARREN: I just don't know where they get that. You know, look at the issues. Minimum wage? I just believe nobody should work full time and live in poverty. And you know what? Most of America agrees. Student loans, I don't think the U.S. government should be making tens of billions of dollars in profits off the backs of our students, which is what the current student loan system is doing. And I think most Americans agree with me on that.

Rand Paul: Tax cuts help the poor because local businesses will hire

PAUL: You know, it's a hardened resistance. It's been going on for decade after decade. So it's not going to easy to change. We got 3% of the vote in Detroit [for Romney in the 2012 election]. There's not one Democrat that's offered to help the people in Detroit. I went to the people of Detroit and I offered them a billion dollars of their own money to try to help them recover.

Q: But you're offering tax cuts. If you don't have a job, if you're in poverty, tax cuts aren't going to help.

PAUL: That money would be left in the hands of businesses that people in Detroit are already voting on. Let's grow those businesses and they will employ more people.

Rahm Emanuel: Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit

EMANUEL: We are getting to a point where we can make a pension payment or pave a road but we can't do both. I am not tough on pensions. I am realistic. There is a difference. It is also realistic from a fiscal side that, if all we do is make no changes, I would have to raise taxes at a level that would harm the economy.

Q: Are we seeing cleavages within the Democratic Party? On pensions? Negotiation with the unions?

EMANUEL: There are divisions, or I would call them differences. Too much of the debate in Washington is about ideological gradations. I have a piece today [in the Chicago Sun-Times] about the Earned Income Tax Credit. I have negotiated to expand it. Now, is that considered left or right?

Q: Uh--

EMANUEL: I consider myself a progressive. I have a passion for people who work. To me, this is about forward versus backward looking. Ideological gradations are the wrong way to look at it.

Chris Christie: Focus on income inequality drives America toward mediocrity

Christie pooh-poohed the issue and its champions, Mr. de Blasio and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, predicting that they would never achieve the level of influence that the Tea Party had exerted in the Republican Party. "I don't think they are affecting the rest of the country all that much," he said.

The problem, he said, is that Americans do not want income equality, suggesting that it is antithetical to the country's abiding belief in "income opportunity" that rewards hard work and merit. "You want income equality? That is mediocrity," he said. "Everybody can have an equal, mediocre salary."

Marco Rubio: Take next step in War on Poverty: provide opportunity

RUBIO: There are significant number of Americans that do not have equality of opportunity. We need to address the fact that we have 40-some odd million people who feel trapped in poverty and do not feel like they have an equal opportunity to get ahead. As far as the war on poverty is concerned, its programs have utility--they do help alleviate the consequences of poverty--but they don't help people to emerge from that poverty. And that's why I feel like the war on poverty has failed because it's incomplete. I think we have to take the next step, which is to help people trapped with inequality of opportunity to have the opportunity to build for themselves a better life.

Martin O`Malley: Anti-poverty programs grow our middle class

O'MALLEY: One of those so-called rigid programs is feeding hungry children. I don't think that there is anything rigid about a program where you feed hungry children.

Q: But I think his suggestion is we'll give you, Governor, the money that we are sending you anyway for this program and YOU manage it.

O'MALLEY: Actually what he's saying is we'll send you less money because this year we want to cut dollars to feed hungry children. The answers to feeding hungry children is not fewer dollars, it's to do more. It is to raise the minimum wage. It is to increase, not dismantle, the earned income tax credit. These are the things that grow our middle class, not a cynical shell game of cap-and-block-grant and then dismantle.

Rand Paul: Economic freedom zones: low taxes in high unemployment areas

1. If we extend unemployment insurance, we pay for it
2. But we add something to it that would create jobs. And so what I have been promoting are economic freedom zones, which any area that has unemployment one-and-a-half times the national average, we would dramatically lower taxes to try to spur and stimulate the economy there and create jobs.

Marco Rubio: Feds help deal with poverty; states can help escape it

Speaking on the 50th anniversary of Johnson's declaration of the War on Poverty, Rubio argued that the government should not only work to close the gap between rich and poor, but also focus on improving economic mobility to lift families out of poverty and expand the middle class. "Our current government programs offer, at best, only a partial solution," Rubio said. "They help people deal with poverty, but they do not help them escape it."

For conservatives like Rubio, a key challenge will be reconciling a call for a greater focus on the needy with Republican efforts to scale back food stamps, and opposing an increase the minimum wage.

Rand Paul: Economic freedom zones in depressed inner cities

PAUL: Well, it hasn't worked. I mean, the president poured $1 trillion into the nation's economy. And when you divided it out, it was about $400,000 per job. The problem with a government stimulus is you pick the winners and losers. With this stimulus, a free market stimulus, you simply leave the money in the hands of those who earned it. So customers have actually picked out the successful people, the ones they choose to buy products from. Those people get more money.