Sam Brownback: “More than 30 years after the United States first declared the War on Poverty, most signs point to failure. The United…”

“More than 30 years after the United States first declared the War on Poverty, most signs point to failure. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars--by some accounts we have spent nearly $4 trillion--to fight poverty only to find poverty in America has grown more widespread, more entrenched, and more pathological. The solution is not to expand more Government but rather to go a different way, and to say, ``Look, we have tried that route. We have spent nearly $4 trillion trying that route. We have tried every program you possibly can with that route. Maybe there is another way that we should be going.'' This is what the Renewal Alliance, this program, is about--about rewarding self-help and not Government help. It is about encouraging charity rather than encouraging Government. It is about encouraging volunteerism rather than putting more people on the taxpayer rolls to solve problems that we have failed to be able to solve.”