Remember the poor?

Mona Charen writes that

The great advantage of being a liberal/progressive in America is that you are always judged on your intentions (or stated intentions) and not on results.

Poverty has increased under Mr. Obama’s watch. It ticked up during the recession, which is to be expected and was obviously not a result of Obama’s policies. But after the recession ended, and after the first much-vaunted “recovery summer” (2010) and then the second (2011), poverty continued to climb. The poverty rate has now been stuck at 15 percent for three consecutive years. This is a 50-year high. Enrollment in the food-stamp program (SNAP) has increased by 39 percent.

About 25 percent of the poor in America are working. Only about 2.9 percent work full time. Government largesse can keep people from destitution, but it cannot provide a ladder out of poverty. Only jobs can do that.

A Republican party alert to its own interests as well as those of the nation would pick up the cause of the poor that the Democrats have abandoned. Instead of a disability, welfare, or unemployment check, they should find a way to offer a job.

Read more here.