The Democrats revisit an old quagmire

Linda Chavez:

Barack Obama and John Edwards want to get us out of one war and into another. The two Democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination want to end the war in Iraq and spend at least some of the savings on a new war on poverty.

Last week, Mr. Edwards finished an eight-state tour reminiscent of Bobby Kennedy's famous visit to poor Appalachian communities during his bid for the presidency in 1968, while Mr. Obama launched his crusade in Anacostia, a District of Columbia neighborhood historically been one of D.C.'s poorest.

Ending poverty is certainly a noble goal — but from the policy proposals Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards offered, it appears neither has a clue how to go about it. Both men want more government spending, as if adding a few billion more to the $11 trillion spent on poverty programs since President Lyndon Johnson first initiated the War on Poverty in 1964 would finally produce the desired results. Worse, some proposals they offered would likely harm, not help, poor families.

Mr. Obama wants to tie the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index, which would price the lowest-skilled workers, especially young blacks, out of the job market, not to mention increase inflationary pressure on wages.

Mr. Edwards would have the government create 1 million new temporary jobs for the chronically unemployed, despite abundant research that shows these programs have no lasting impact in reducing poverty or increasing long-term employment among the poor.

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The single most important program to move people out of poverty was welfare reform that the Republicans forced on Bill Clinton in the 90's. The programs that did the most to destroy the black family and put several generations into poverty were the Great Society war on poverty which was one of the biggest government quagmires of all time. What Obama and Edwards are proposing is a return to the bad old days of dependency. They are suggesting this turn at a time of unprecedented prosperity that has lifted millions out of poverty through a growing economy that has been fed by tax cuts. They also want to take away this engine of economic growth.