Poverty Funds
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* Re Robert Borosage’s Jan. 28 Column Left: He forgot to mention two important factors with regard to President Johnson’s War on Poverty that seriously undercut his argument for revving up the expenditures for social programs.
Johnson’s programs obviously didn’t work, or we wouldn’t be decrying current poverty 30 years and billions of dollars later. Throwing money at a problem sounds caring, but the results of this vast welfare system have tended to create a passive and dependent segment of society incapable of fending for themselves.
Johnson’s “guns and butter” programs (as the Vietnam War and War on Poverty were referred to) were financed with Social Security receipts, which Johnson transferred to the general fund. And that, dear friends, is why that program is in constant threat of insolvency.
In 30 years, Congress has never made the responsible choice to put those receipts back off limits to their never-satiated urge to spend.
JOYCE B. GOETZ
Westlake Village
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