Paul Ryan's War on (people in) Poverty.

Paul Ryan’s continued his torturous attack on the poor, with plans that are once again intentionally short on details. For Ryan, people are worthless when they’re not working. JS

“Ryan has said the agenda is meant to be a starting point for legislation under a Republican president in 2017.”

The “devil” is always in the details, and that’s why Ryan never gets to the details.

You'd think with improving jobs numbers and lower unemployment rates, the Republican myth that people are lazy freeloaders would finally be toast. Nope.

Ryan’s plan isn't a small government solution either, adding more bureaucracy; Ryan envisions a glorious time when no one can access the safety nets.

   

Bureaucratic federal requirements would be the first barrier:

Instituting work requirements for welfare recipients and for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, who are able to work.

Which will come with a maze of traps and hoops to maneuver through, you know, those “government regulations” Republicans complain so much about.

Ryan then wants to grade these programs, ignoring how the Great Recessions negated decades of business and job creation:

"Common sense says the federal government should fund only programs that have a track record of success. Yet the federal government frequently pays for well-intentioned programs and services that have no evidence of effectiveness — and in many cases, even when the program is proven not to work at all."

And forget about the Wall Street collapse and housing debacle that destroyed millions of middle class families, plunging them into poverty: 

The poverty rate is roughly 15%, the same as it was in 1965, before many of the programs started. Those numbers have been criticized before as misleading. The White House issued a report in 2012 suggesting it went from 26% in 1967 to 16% in 2012.

Get that twist in messaging; the White House’s report didn’t actually “suggest” anything, it reported how the poverty rate went from 26% to 16%.

And finally, Ryan’s 2^nd tiered attack includes a state wall to block access to our safety nets; He wants to let states imposed big government hoops and restrictions via a no-strings attached block grant. This trick is something that should be getting a lot more attention, because it not only keeps people out of these life-saving programs, it also allows states to spend the cash they save:

“…giving states and local governments more flexibility to address their residents' needs.”