Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow Doesn't Believe in Extreme Poverty in NC

[HeavyPetter]

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/north_carolina/poverty-comment-riles-some-nc-lawmakers

Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow, said he was skeptical about a House committee report that read "there are an increasing number of children living in extreme poverty." Cleveland said he believed the government keeps redefining poverty "to make sure that we have a poverty class."

"We have no one in the state of North Carolina living in extreme poverty. We might governmentally say they are, but they're not," Cleveland said, pointing to developing countries where he said extreme poverty really exists. "Extreme poverty is that you're out there living on a dollar and a half day. I don't think we have anybody in North Carolina doing that."

Census figures show about 1.6 million people, or 17.5 percent of the state's population, were living in poverty based on federal guidelines in North Carolina in 2010, compared to 16.3 percent in 2009. About one in four children were living at or below the poverty level. More than 728,000 North Carolinians were living in what some experts label "deep poverty" in 2010, meaning they earn half the federal poverty level, or at the time about $11,000 for a family of four.

$11,000 a year for a family of four = $211.54 per week or $7.55 per person per day.

How can someone who lives in Onslow County not think that people are living in extreme poverty? Enlisted men with families at Camp LeJeune live right around the poverty line. The whole damn county is a ramshackle trailer park. I guess $11,000 a year goes a long way down east.

 

[Wrangor]

This is not an uncommon theme in the Republican party right now and it is regrettable but not entirely inaccurate. Compared with the impoverished of the world, the impoverished of NC are wealthy. However the reality is that we as Americans are responsible for the poor that we have in our midst. And if you don't think that $7/day is poor in America then you are an idiot and have lost touch with reality. We owe the poor love and respect not because they are quantitatively disadvantaged but because they are our brothers and sisters born of a woman just like we were. We should desire to see them flourish, but instead we have adopted a me-first strategy of anything. If we took as much joy seeing a single mother family with 3 kids make it out of the ghetto and live a sustainable life, as we do watching our 401k grow during the boom times, we would be much better off as a society.

 

[SCDeac]

This is not an uncommon theme in the Republican party right now and it is regrettable but not entirely inaccurate. Compared with the impoverished of the world, the impoverished of NC are wealthy. However the reality is that we as Americans are responsible for the poor that we have in our midst. And if you don't think that $7/day is poor in America then you are an idiot and have lost touch with reality. We owe the poor love and respect not because they are quantitatively disadvantaged but because they are our brothers and sisters born of a woman just like we were. We should desire to see them flourish, but instead we have adopted a me-first strategy of anything. If we took as much joy seeing a single mother family with 3 kids make it out of the ghetto and live a sustainable life, as we do watching our 401k grow during the boom times, we would be much better off as a society.

Well kumbaya! Maybe it's the structure of our government programs that needs to be looked at. Almost 50 years since the LBJ's Great Society and poverty is as big if not bigger problem. Most programs do very little to help raise that single mother and her 3 kids out of the ghetto. It's time to re-examine what we're doing and try to do things that actually work, produce results, and breaks the cycle of poverty.

 

[Liquid Karma]

 

[deacdiggler]

This is not an uncommon theme in the Republican party right now and it is regrettable but not entirely inaccurate. Compared with the impoverished of the world, the impoverished of NC are wealthy. However the reality is that we as Americans are responsible for the poor that we have in our midst. And if you don't think that $7/day is poor in America then you are an idiot and have lost touch with reality. We owe the poor love and respect not because they are quantitatively disadvantaged but because they are our brothers and sisters born of a woman just like we were. We should desire to see them flourish, but instead we have adopted a me-first strategy of anything. If we took as much joy seeing a single mother family with 3 kids make it out of the ghetto and live a sustainable life, as we do watching our 401k grow during the boom times, we would be much better off as a society.

Excellent post.

 

[RJKarl]

Well kumbaya! Maybe it's the structure of our government programs that needs to be looked at. Almost 50 years since the LBJ's Great Society and poverty is as big if not bigger problem. Most programs do very little to help raise that single mother and her 3 kids out of the ghetto. It's time to re-examine what we're doing and try to do things that actually work, produce results, and breaks the cycle of poverty.

Becasue of the laws that protect the rich at the expense of the poor.

 

[HeavyPetter]

Well kumbaya! Maybe it's the structure of our government programs that needs to be looked at. Almost 50 years since the LBJ's Great Society and poverty is as big if not bigger problem. Most programs do very little to help raise that single mother and her 3 kids out of the ghetto. It's time to re-examine what we're doing and try to do things that actually work, produce results, and breaks the cycle of poverty.

Yeah, like tax cuts!

 

[Liquid Karma]

This is not an uncommon theme in the Republican party right now and it is regrettable but not entirely inaccurate. Compared with the impoverished of the world, the impoverished of NC are wealthy. However the reality is that we as Americans are responsible for the poor that we have in our midst. And if you don't think that $7/day is poor in America then you are an idiot and have lost touch with reality. We owe the poor love and respect not because they are quantitatively disadvantaged but because they are our brothers and sisters born of a woman just like we were. We should desire to see them flourish, but instead we have adopted a me-first strategy of anything. If we took as much joy seeing a single mother family with 3 kids make it out of the ghetto and live a sustainable life, as we do watching our 401k grow during the boom times, we would be much better off as a society.

One of the better posts I've seen on this board in some time.

 

[SCDeac]

I'd rather have some programs that actually work than one's that perpetuate the root causes of poverty. Tax cuts do not make people poor.

There are 3 things that a person can do to make sure that the chance they end up in poverty is almost 0%. Graduate from high school, get a job...any job, and don't have kids out of wedlock. Do those 3 things and the chance of ending up in poverty is less than 2%.

Instead we keep paying people to make the same stupid choices that have created generation after generation of people doomed to poverty.

 

[DeaconSig]

This is not an uncommon theme in the Republican party right now and it is regrettable but not entirely inaccurate. Compared with the impoverished of the world, the impoverished of NC are wealthy. However the reality is that we as Americans are responsible for the poor that we have in our midst. And if you don't think that $7/day is poor in America then you are an idiot and have lost touch with reality. We owe the poor love and respect not because they are quantitatively disadvantaged but because they are our brothers and sisters born of a woman just like we were. We should desire to see them flourish, but instead we have adopted a me-first strategy of anything. If we took as much joy seeing a single mother family with 3 kids make it out of the ghetto and live a sustainable life, as we do watching our 401k grow during the boom times, we would be much better off as a society.

Well kumbaya! Maybe it's the structure of our government programs that needs to be looked at. Almost 50 years since the LBJ's Great Society and poverty is as big if not bigger problem. Most programs do very little to help raise that single mother and her 3 kids out of the ghetto. It's time to re-examine what we're doing and try to do things that actually work, produce results, and breaks the cycle of poverty.

SCDeac now safely falls in the bolded category.

 

[Liquid Karma]

I think most would agree that helping the poor lift themselves out of poverty is as American as apple pie. They will differ on the means and whether current programs are successful in doing so. Statistically Republican voters give more to charitable causes than democrat voters, so a proclamation that Republicans don't care about the poor is an interesting one. On the one hand a large number of Republicans shriek about increasing taxes to pay for services for the less fortunate. At the same time, they are giving more money to charitable causes than Democrats are. I think it boils down to how effective some people believe the government is in lifting the poor out of their situation.

I personally am far more concerned about the poverty problem in this country than I am about the national debt, defense spending and myriad trumped up social issues. If we spent a little more time trying to help the less fortunate here at home and a lot less time worrying about the strife in some sandbox halfway around the world we'd have a good start at solving the problem.

 

[WakeandBake]

I'd rather have some programs that actually work than one's that perpetuate the root causes of poverty. Tax cuts do not make people poor.

There are 3 things that a person can do to make sure that the chance they end up in poverty is almost 0%. Graduate from high school, get a job...any job, and don't have kids out of wedlock. Do those 3 things and the chance of ending up in poverty is less than 2%.

Instead we keep paying people to make the same stupid choices that have created generation after generation of people doomed to poverty.

Well kumbaya, those liberals invented poverty in America! Before LBJs Great Society, Americans always graduated from high school, never had children out of wedlock, and they all went and got jobs, any jobs. They invented poverty in America to get votes! GENIUS!

 

[SCDeac]

SCDeac now safely falls in the bolded category.

So the amswer is to just continue with the same old failed programs that never end the cycle of poverty. Always the liberal answer...just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away. Even when there's a 50 year track record of failure. Typical mismanaged federal programs producing shitty results.

It's time to try something new.

 

[WakeandBake]

So the amswer is to just continue with the same old failed programs that never end the cycle of poverty. Always the liberal answer...just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away. Even when there's a 50 year track record of failure. Typical mismanaged federal programs producing shitty results.

It's time to try something new.

Go look up pictures of poverty in america before the great society and get back to us.

Try something new? Let me guess...cut all social programs and force all those poor people to get a job or starve to death in the slums? Bootstraps and all

 

[BarcaDeac]

So the amswer is to just continue with the same old failed programs that never end the cycle of poverty. Always the liberal answer...just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away. Even when there's a 50 year track record of failure. Typical mismanaged federal programs producing shitty results.

It's time to try something new.

like what? churches doing it all? we've had posts on this board talking about how if we get rid of entitlement programs, charitable people and orgs will simply pick up the slack.

 

[SCDeac]

Well kumbaya, those liberals invented poverty in America! Before LBJs Great Society, Americans always graduated from high school, never had children out of wedlock, and they all went and got jobs, any jobs. They invented poverty in America to get votes! GENIUS!

Why not just look at the illegitimacy rates since the Great Society. Children being born out of wedlock is the number one cause of poverty and dooms generation after generation. But if it makes you feel good to just keep throwing money at the problem rather than trying to get to the root causes and breaking the cycle then you must be one happy person.

 

[RJKarl]

]I'd rather have some programs that actually work than one's that perpetuate the root causes of poverty. Tax cuts do not make people poor.
[/B]

It was Republicans (Reagan) who ended CETA which was a net gain to the economy. It was Republicans who ended Enterprise Zones. It's Republicans that want to dramatically cut Pell Grants.
There are 3 things that a person can do to make sure that the chance they end up in poverty is almost 0%. Graduate from high school, get a job...any job, and don't have kids out of wedlock. Do those 3 things and the chance of ending up in poverty is less than 2%.

Instead we keep paying people to make the same stupid choices that have created generation after generation of people doomed to poverty.

.......

 

[SCDeac]

like what? churches doing it all? we've had posts on this board talking about how if we get rid of entitlement programs, charitable people and orgs will simply pick up the slack.

I never said that. But every day in my job I deal with folks who are trapped in the poverty cycle with no clue how to get out. Hell I just had a family leave my office....grandma was about 30, daughter mid-teens, one child about 1 1/2, and pregnant with #2. What's the Left's answer...just keep the checks coming. It's heartbreaking.

 

[WakeandBake]

The reason for the recent spate of extreme poverty in America is not because of a failure of social programs intended to help the disadvantaged. It is partly the result of a major shift in wealth to the top stemming from failed economic philosophies, primarily supply-side economics. For the past thirty years this problem has been building as America's wealth concentrates at the top. It is also partly the result of rising health care costs that disproportionally affect the poor. Do poor people make life mistakes? Of course. But so do wealthy and middle-class people - the exact same human mistakes - but they have the means to deal with them.

 

[HeavyPetter]

Why not just look at the illegitimacy rates since the Great Society. Children being born out of wedlock is the number one cause of poverty and dooms generation after generation. But if it makes you feel good to just keep throwing money at the problem rather than trying to get to the root causes and breaking the cycle then you must be one happy person.

You're right. We need to cut taxes AND get rid of contraception.