Steve Southerland Takes It on the Chin for Insisting Big-Government Fails to End Poverty

With Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson launching the federal “War on Poverty,” U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., took center stage for the Republicans and drew fire from the Democrats.

Southerland chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) Anti-Poverty Initiative and, in that role, spoke to the media on Wednesday in Washington. Noting the federal government had spent more than $15 trillion, the North Florida congressman pointed to 46.5 million Americans still living in poverty and insisted big-government solutions weren’t working.

“As we mark the 50th anniversary of America’s War on Poverty, it’s clear we are instead locked in battle of attrition that’s left more people in poverty than ever before,” said Southerland. “The big-government ideas of the past aren’t working.”