Lyin’ Ryan
by digby
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday praised welfare reform for reducing child poverty, even though child poverty is higher today than it was before welfare reform. Speaking to former GOP congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Ryan said, “You voted for a bipartisan bill in 1996, welfare reform, that did more to reduce child poverty than any reform in the modern era.”
The child poverty rate in 1996 was 20.5 percent, according to the government’s numbers. The rate declined each year after Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act until 2000, when it fell to 16.2 percent. But then something sad happened: The rate started going back up. It reached 21.8 percent in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available.
What happened was that an epic tech bubble that had everyone working burst. Welfare reform was a failure. But the Jack Kemp Travelling Tribute show isn’t going to admit that.
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