According to an article in the New York Times today, Republicans are making themselves out to be poverty fighters.
Mindful of polls that show many Americans see them as detached from or indifferent to the hardships faced by the people most affected by the recession and slow recovery, Republicans have begun to speak publicly on the issue of poverty and to propose their own, more market-based solutions.
Imagine it! Those Republicans sure do love the disadvantaged whom they've done so much to uplift! Right?
Senator Rubio says, of Democratic thinking
“I just think their thinking on this is stale and old and doesn’t really address the magnitude of the problem.”
.
Of course,
The effort is meant both to cast the party in a more compassionate and inclusive light in an election year, and to push for an overhaul of programs that Republicans argue have made poverty more tolerable without improving mobility or opportunity.
But isn't this a bit hard to believe based on their policies?
Well, yes, and for good reason.
But at the same time that the party is shifting its focus to poverty, many Republicans are pushing for deep cuts to food assistance programs and unemployment insurance, while 11 million Americans are jobless and poverty rates remain elevated in the wake of the recession.
In a past year, Repubs called everything the Democrats did "job killing." That was their mantra at that time, and since then they've done everything they could to do harm the economy and kill job growth, including staging constant financial crises.
Are people dumb enough to fall for it, again? Time will tell.