Bill for the War on Poverty  Published: Monday, February 18,
2013 at 12:01 a.m.  Nicholas Kristof's recent column is
revealing into the mind-set of progressives ["For Obama's Second
Term, Start Here," op-ed column, Jan. 29].  He states that since
President Lyndon Johnson declared a "war on poverty" in the
1960s, we have spent $16 trillion, and the number of Americans
living below the poverty level has increased. His answer is to
refocus how the future trillions are to be spent.  So, the
answer to a quantified, governmental, decades-long failure is to
refocus and continue to spend the money, and hope that it might
work. Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different
result is the definition of insanity.  Did anyone also notice
that the bill for the war on poverty is equal to our national
debt?  Imagine how good our economy would look now if $16
trillion had not been siphoned off and laundered through the
government for so-called social justice and we had no federal
debt.  One can only dream.     ▲ R