Exit Strategy, Anyone?

From an article by Robert Rector at NRO Online, some reasons to start looking for an exit strategy from the so-called “War on Poverty”–

Today marks the 46th anniversary of the War on Poverty. On March 16, 1964, Pres. Lyndon Johnson announced a new government mobilization that he claimed would yield “total victory” against poverty in the United States. Johnson promised his “war” would be an “investment” that would “return its cost manifold to the entire economy.”

…Since the beginning of the War on Poverty, government has spent $16.7 trillion (in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars) on means-tested welfare. In comparison, all the military wars in U.S. history have cost a total of $6.4 trillion (also in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars)…

…The original goal of the War on Poverty — to reduce both poverty and dependence on government — has been abandoned and forgotten. While occasional lip service is sometimes still paid to reducing government dependence, ironically, this concept almost always appears as a justification for new government spending…

It’s be nice if one were allowed to make a principled argument against “feddle gummint” so-called “welfare” spending (really not-so-charitable “charity” giving by the feds of other people’s money to folks who’ve neither earned it nor, often nowadays, care to.)

Next, might I humbly suggest also looking for an exit strategy from the perennial loser “War on Drugs”–so-called in 1969 by R.M. Nixon. (Of course, as anyone with more active brain cells than a head of cabbage might note, if it took a Constitutional Amendment–now repealed–to outlaw the manufacture and distribution of just ONE mind-altering substance by the feds, what Constitutional authority underpins the “War on Drugs”?)