Douay-Rheims: For the poor you have always with you... John 12:8

CNS News reported on June 25, 2012:

The federal government is not making much headway reducing poverty despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study by the libertarian Cato Institute.

Despite an unprecedented increase in federal anti-poverty spending, the national poverty rate has not declined, the study finds.

“[S]ince President Obama took office [in January 2009], federal welfare spending has increased by 41 percent, more than $193 billion per year,” the study says.

Federal welfare spending in fiscal year 2011 totaled $668 billion, spread out over 126 programs, while the poverty rate that remains high at 15.1 percent, roughly where it was in 1965, when President Johnson declared a federal War on Poverty.

In 1966, the first year after Johnson declared war on poverty, the national poverty rate was 14.7 percent, according to Census Bureau figures. Over time, the poverty rate has fluctuated in a narrow range between 11 and 15 percent, only falling into the 11 percent range for a few years in the late 1970’s.

The federal poverty rate is the percentage of the population below the federal poverty threshold, which varies based on family size.

While the study concedes that some of the increased spending under Obama is a result of the recession and the counter-cyclical nature of anti-poverty programs, it also finds that some of the increase is deliberate, with the government having expanded eligibility for welfare programs.

In fiscal year 2008, anti-poverty spending was $475 billion. In fiscal year 2009, when Obama took office, it had risen to $590 billion.

“But the dramat­ically larger increase also suggests that part of the program’s growth is due to conscious policy choices by this administration to ease eligibility rules and expand caseloads,” the Cato report says. “For example, income limits for eligibility have risen twice as fast as inflation since 2007 and are now roughly 10 percent higher than they were when Obama took office.”

In fact, the study points out that according to the administration’s own projections, federal welfare spending is unlikely to decline even after the economy recovers – further evidence that not all of the increase in spending is recession-related.

“All this spending has not bought an appreciable reduction in poverty,” the study says.  “[T]he poverty rate has remained relatively constant since 1965, despite rising welfare spending.”

The study counts as a welfare program any federal program that is means-tested and provides some kind of cash or in-kind benefit. Means-tested programs are federal programs that only make benefits available to people at or below a certain income level. In-kind benefits are things like healthcare, housing, or other non-cash benefits that are given in lieu of money.

Included in this expanded definition of welfare spending are traditional welfare programs such as food stamps and cash welfare benefits, as well as in-kind, means tested programs like Medicaid, energy assistance grants for low-income people, and the refundable portions of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The study faults the way poverty programs are designed, saying that the increase in spending and largely unchanged poverty rate showed that the issue is not a matter of money, but a matter of what the programs aim to achieve.

“The vast majority of current programs are focused on making poverty more comfortable – giv­ing poor people more food, better shelter, health care, and so forth – rather than giving people the tools that will help them escape poverty.”

Instead, the study recommends refocusing anti-poverty efforts on keeping people in school, discouraging out-of-wedlock births, and encouraging people to get a job – even if that job is a low-wage one.

“It would make sense therefore to shift our anti-poverty efforts from government programs that simply provide money or goods and services to those who are living in poverty to efforts to create the condi­tions and incentives that will make it eas­ier for people to escape poverty.

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"My children, I caution you now, and I wish that you remember these instructions from several years ago in earth's time that I gave to you, to keep in your homes a good supply of canned good. They have shelf value, My children, they will not spoil. But better that you keep them and they spoil than to have come upon you the great Chastisement. It will be a ball of fire which will ignite many of the chemicals that are being stored up for the destruction of the nations.
"My children, not only with the canned foods will you store just food, but you must also make known to your families and your friends that they had best keep blankets and water in tight containers; for there will be on the onset of the Chastisement, there will be nothing that you can buy due to contamination." - Our Lady, July 1, 1985

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The Awesome Bayside Prophecies...  https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm  
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:

PROVISIONS
"How many shall be prepared? Do you have your candles? Do you have your water, your canned food, and your blankets? It will become an extremely cold day with the start of the tribulation, and you will welcome having these on hand, My children." - Jesus, November 1, 1985

WATER  AND  BLANKETS
"My children, I caution you now, and I wish that you remember these instructions from several years ago in earth's time that I gave to you, to keep in your homes a good supply of canned good. They have shelf value, My children, they will not spoil. But better that you keep them and they spoil than to have come upon you the great Chastisement. It will be a ball of fire which will ignite many of the chemicals that are being stored up for the destruction of the nations.
    "My children, not only with the canned foods will you store just food, but you must also make known to your families and your friends that they had best keep blankets and water in tight containers; for there will be on the onset of the Chastisement, there will be nothing that you can buy due to contamination." - Our Lady, July 1, 1985

MUST  YOU  GO  HUNGRY?
"My children in the United States of America, must you go hungry? Many parts of your country shall suffer from want of food, for the winter will be cold. Many shall die in the coming year, My children. There will be accidents that are not accidents. Hunger shall be in the homes of many." - Our Lady, December 7, 1978

BLESSED  CANDLES
"There will be tremendously high waves roaring and taking with them cities. Buildings shall disappear from their moorings. The atmosphere shall spew forth currents of great heat. A darkness of spirit and a darkness of atmosphere shall settle in a deadly quiet upon mankind.
     "As the day follows night, so shall this Warning follow soon. Beware of the sunrise! Do not look up to the sky--the flash! Beware of the sunrise! Do not look up to the sky--the flash! Close your windows; draw your shades; remain inside. Do not venture outside your door, or you will not return. Pray! Prostrate yourselves upon your floors! Pray with arms outstretched, and beg for mercy of your God the Father.
     "Do not seek to receive your animals into your homes, for the animals of those who have remained of well spirit will be taken care of.
     "O My children, how many will try to go back and restore their homes when it is too late!
     "Keep blessed candles, water, blankets, food within your homes. The candles of those who have remained in the state of grace shall not be extinguished, but the candles in the homes of those who have given themselves to satan shall not burn! Amen I say to you: as night follows day, a great darkness shall descend upon mankind." - Our Lady, June 12, 1976

BARTERING  FOR  FOOD
"My child and My children, the days will grow darker, and there will be hunger in your land.  Yes, My child, what I brought you here for this evening is to tell the world that there will be a crash in the monetary doings of your government--an absolute crash that will affect every man, woman, and child in the United States and Canada, and then, like a serpent, creep all over Europe, until the world sees one big, massive depression.  I can illustrate to you, My children, what I mean by this monetary depression.
     "Should you go and wish to buy a small instrument, even a guitar, that We hear plucking away at the dervishly, and devilry, of what is called the musical Mass, strung by guitars, and other creations of satan.  My child, I go on to tell you, you will say that the guitar is not a costly item, but in order to buy this guitar you will carry an actual satchel, an overnight bag-size, My child--let Us put it that way clearly--of notes, your currency.  It will take a whole suitcase of paper - paper money that no longer has a value.  You will soon be reduced to bartering for your food.” - Our Lady, September 7, 1985

STARVATION
"My child, you will see that the Message goes throughout the world.  Do not be slowed down in your endeavors by scoffers, those who say there will not be a Third World War.  Are they God? Oh, no, they will know what it is to see blackened bodies along the roadside, their children, stomachs distended with starvation.  'This cannot happen here in the United States,' I hear voices saying.  O My children, it will!  Your crops will rot.  Your children will be barred from their own homes because they have become a source of murder.” - Our Lady, May 28, 1983

PHYSICAL  HUNGER
"My children, do not be concerned of any worldly possession for soon many shall know hunger.  There is a spiritual hunger now in your world and in your hearts, but soon your country, the United States, will join other nations in knowing physical hunger and want.
     "My children, can this be avoided?  What price must you pay before you will listen and awaken from your lethargy and realize what has been happening to your country and many countries of the world, as you go along like ducks upon the waters following leaders who have become paganized in their lust for power.” - Our Lady, November 24, 1979

OUR  LADY'S  PROMISE
"My children, you must all unite in prayer, link for link, using the sacramentals given to you from Heaven, the beads of prayer, your Rosary, the Scapular of life; for I promise you: All who wear the Brown Scapular shall never feel the fires of hell. Even the greatest of sinner will be converted and saved if he will wear the Brown Scapular when he passes over the veil, when he leaves, My child and My children, his body at the moment you call upon earth death. But I say unto you as your Mother, for My Son and all Heaven, there is no death! For you continue to live with full consciousness when you leave your body. Then, My child and My children, what will be your reaction if you have not used every means possible to store graces for a quick entrance into the Kingdom of your God?" - Our Lady, August 14, 1979

SPARED
"Remember: one Rosary a day, at leastat least, I say, must be prayed in the home that is to be spared." - Jesus, April 14, 1984

NOT  FOR  DECORATION
"I look across the world, and I see so few that carry their beads of prayer. Whatever shall they do when they are forced to run? When the Chastisement comes upon you, many will flee with whatever they have on their backs or on their persons. Therefore, My children, it is not for decoration that I have asked you to wear your beads of prayer about your neck. It was for when you flee; you will have your armor upon you." - Our Lady, May 30, 1973

STORE CANNED GOODS, WATER AND BLANKETS . . .
"My children, I caution you now, and I wish that you remember these instructions from several years ago in earth's time that I gave to you, to keep in your homes a good supply of canned good.  They have shelf value, My children, they will not spoil. But better that you keep them and they spoil than to have come upon you the great Chastisement.  It will be a ball of fire which will ignite many of the chemicals that are being stored up for the destruction of the nations.
    "My children, not only with the canned foods will you store just food, but you must also make known to your families and your friends that they had best keep blankets and water in tight containers; for there will be on the onset of the Chastisement, there will be nothing that you can buy due to contamination." - Our Lady, July 1, 1985