The New York Times 2010s: on Welfare & Poverty

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.

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."