My Brother’s Keeper
It’s finally time to talk about poverty. I hope Paul Ryan’s addition to the Republican ticket makes this unavoidable. Yes, it’s an awkward conversation—but it’s an important one. November’s choice is simple: Are we willing, as a nation, to roll back our commitments to the poor, the elderly, and the most vulnerable?1
I am comfortable with questions of faith in politics—because this question is, and should be, about what we hold most valuable.
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In a later post, I’ll happily address anybody’s delusions that Ryan’s budget proposals are anything more than a shift of public resources from the poor, elderly, and vulnerable, to the rich, richer, and richest. There is certainly room for improvement in our current system of delivering services to those who need them—but the Romney-Ryan numbers are so dramatic that it’s clear that they’re looking to massively roll back assistance—not just to tweak and fix. The math on this one is unambiguous. ↩
