Paul Ryan hearts the poor

This is what passes for compassion by some of our elected leaders. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan declared the "War on Poverty" a losing cause because the poverty rate recently hit the highest levels in the past 50 years. He blames government assistance and the weak character of the poor for creating a culture of dependency that maintains a vicious cycle of poverty. He wants to help.

The War on Poverty, which President Lyndon Johnson declared nearly 50 years ago, has “failed miserably,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Thursday -- and he wants to figure out what approaches would work to get Americans out of poverty.

Ryan's solution is always the same. We need more tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor. He wants to create a work requirement to receive food stamps. It is economic darwinism at its finest. Poverty should only be tolerable for the people in low wage jobs or jobs training programs. 

While Ryan said that safety net programs must remain in place for those who are utterly incapable of work, he supports broadening and making more rigorous the work or job-training requirement for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly named the Food Stamp program). to work, to look for work, or to be in a vocational training program. “I think it’s insensitive to not have a work requirement for food stamps, and what I mean when I say that is: our goal in these programs is not to make poverty easier to handle and tolerate and live with, our goal in these program ought to be to give people a temporary hand so that they can get out of poverty.”

Think of it as a kinder and gentler version of the Hunger Games, where the poor can choose between starvation or slave-wage jobs. The challenge is how to sell that to a gullible public. Enter the tough-love approach. The people at the bottom of the economic ladder will suffer, but it is for their own good. If only our poor were better trained and willing to work harder while never earning enough to get out of poverty.

As touched as I am by Ryan's concern for the poor, I doubt his sincerity. There are three enormous flies in his ointment. 

First, supply side economics is a scam.  Thirty years of tax cuts for the so-called job creators have not created jobs and economic growth but the rich have gotten richer and the poor have grown in number and desperation. Greed is resoundingly condemned in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Paul said that love of money is at the root of all sorts of evil. Jesus said the rich will be judged harshly for greed. Note to all those biblical inerrancy fanatics. I take it the words of the Apostle Paul and Jesus carry enormous weight. Right?

Second, Ryan's favorite talking point that government austerity boosts economic growth has been thoroughly debunked. Even though the empirical foundation of his argument was proven false, he still talks up austerity as necessary regardless of the human costs for doing so. That seems pretty shallow. 

Finally, the private sector has failed to create living wage jobs that lift people out of poverty. Over the past four decades major corporations have exported manufacturing and technology sector jobs and replaced them with part-time service sector jobs that pay minimum wage. You don't need much in the way of a vocational training programs to prepare you for stocking shelves at WalMart or banging out fries at McDonald's. Ironically, service industry workers often need food stamps and Medicaid to survive on what these highly profitable companies pay them. And now billionaires are even campaigning to get rid of the minimum wage so we can teach the poor important career lessons. In other words, the private sector is working hard to take away opportunities for people at the bottom of the economic ladder. 

I would be shocked if someone guided by the Holy Spirit were blind to the despair being created by those with the most in our society.  Ditto for someone that claims government social safety net programs violate Catholic social principles. He even laughed off sternly worded letters from the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops taking exception to his interpretation. 

So who is to blame for the lack of living wage jobs in America? It almost seems that politicians like Paul Ryan are blaming government to distract from the abject failure of the private sector to create decent jobs. Perhaps we need to rethink our economic foundation.

As economic opportunity in America crumbles for all but the rich, more and more people find themselves flirting with poverty. Economic insecurity has become the new normal in this country. A recent survey found that Americans now have an 8 in 10 chance of experiencing a period of severe economic hardship between the ages of 25 to 60. 

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend. 

Children growing up in poor neighborhoods see no hope to escape poverty. That pessimistic appraisal is understandable. It does not matter if you are on public assistance, working a minimum wage job, or both because you will still be poor and struggling to survive. Where is incentive to work hard when playing by the rules will get you nowhere fast? That is the definition of learned hopelessness.

It is time for a theological critique of the laissez faire capitalism popular in 21st century America. We have a system that glorifies greed and materialism. It is purely of Mammon, not God. It is idolatry. 

It would be nice if House Budget Chairmen Paul Ryan did two little things. First, shut up about poverty. He doesn't give a damn about the poor. Second, shut up about Christianity. We all know that Ryan is a disciple of Ayn Rand. He once boasted that her books were required reading for his interns and staff. That is an interesting choice given Rand's rejection of God and religion. And as high priestess for Mammon, she taught that greed is the only virtue. Greed is the heart and soul of the Capitalism, which cannot thrive without complete freedom from laws and taxation. The Golden Calf has returned.