Since Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of president Lyndon Johnson’s announcement of an “unconditional war on poverty” during his State of the Union address in 1964, MSNBC used the occasion to promote a poll conducted by a far-left think tank to assert that a government program providing “affordable access to quality child care could help lift millions of Americans out of poverty.”
According to an article by Morgan Whitaker on MSNBC.com, “a vast majority of people polled in a new survey” conducted by the Center for American Progress “includes results from focus groups and a major survey of more than 2,000 American adults.”
Whitaker, who serves as the digital producer for the PoliticsNation weekday program hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton, stated that 86 percent of the Americans surveyed support the strategy, as well as 77 percent of Republicans.
Nevertheless, the liberal reporter noted that the poll “included significant oversamples of Millennials, African-Americans and Latinos, to assess attitudes among these important constituencies.”
When you want a survey to come up with the result you want, one of the best ways to do that is to oversample certain groups that usually agree with you in politics or any other subject, for that matter.
Whitaker then added:
More than four in five of those surveyed support programs the White House has advocated, including expanding nutrition assistance (85 percent), expanding publicly funding scholarships (84 percent) and making pre-kindergarten programs universally available (84 percent) -- a program President Obama championed in his 2013 State of the Union address.
About three quarters of all Republicans support those proposals, too.
“Another 80 percent of all those polled, and two-thirds of Republicans, backed a minimum wage hike,” she continued. “Roughly 75 percent of all those surveyed throw their support behind ideas like helping struggling homeowners refinance mortgages, providing high quality health-care coverage for all Americans and creating subsidized jobs for low-income and long-term unemployed workers.”
Whitaker then took a shot at the GOP by stating:
Although they have been short on details so far, some of the more conservative-friendly proposals won approval, too, including expanding tax credits for low-income families with children, which Republican Sen. Mike Lee has spoken in favor of.
Expanding tax credits to families with low-wage jobs wins significant support, too, something anti-tax Republicans might be willing to get behind.
“Most Americans point to structural problems in the economy as the primary cause of poverty, rather than a lack of personal responsibility or laziness,” she stated. “Nearly two-thirds of those polled agree that 'most people who live in poverty are poor because their jobs don’t pay enough, they lack good health care and education, and things cost too much for them to save and get ahead.'”
President Barack Obama expressed similar concepts on Tuesday, noting: “The long-term unemployed are not lazy. They’re not lacking in motivation. They’re coping with the aftermath of the worst economic crisis in generations. In some cases, they may have a skills mismatch, right? They may have been doing a certain job for 20 years” but suddenly became unemployed."
However, several posters at the Twitchy.com site agreed with the concept of “getting govt out of the way so jobs can be created. NOBODY is rescued from poverty via govt dependence.”
Meanwhile, several people tweeting on the issue had a very different point of view, including @ruffansore, who responded: “End poverty? You people are almost as smart as sawdust.” @TheMadTeaHatter agreed, posting that the people at the cable channel are “less useful, too. Sawdust = Build; MSNBC = Destroy.”
@MelissaTweets hit the nail on the head when she asked: “Jobs, right? The answer is jobs?” “Getting govt out of the way so jobs can be created,” @Lmg1234567 agreed. “NOBODY is rescued from poverty via govt dependence.”
“Best approach to end poverty?” @MayorHalMarx asked. “Obviously not more failed liberal govt programs and billions more dollars wasted.”
In addition, @_X3nomorph noted that after “50 years of handouts,” “the poverty rate hasn't moved.” @fbc1955 made a similar comment: “You want to end poverty, teach them to work instead of supporting them. Some vets make less than people on welfare. No cuts for vets!”
Actually, Whitaker surprisingly noted that “despite some positive economic indicators, many Americans feel the impact of the 'world economic crisis in generations' more strongly today than they did when Obama took office.”
As NewsBusters previously reported, one of the biggest benefactors of the Center for American Progress is liberal billionaire George Soros. In addition, many of the organization's officials were members of president Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s, including the far-left group's founder and president, John Podesta, who in mid-December rejoined the Obama administration to serve as a “counselor” for a year.
While providing daycare for children of unemployed adults is a laudable goal, it obviously reflects the Democrats' faith in big government. And just who is going to pay for this expanded service? You're right: you, me and all the other taxpayers who haven't lost all their money enrolling in ObamaCare.
