Rubio, Ryan and Paul Compete to Be the Most Compassionate Conservative

[DonViejo]

Depending on how cynical you are, Republicans have either noticed they won't win elections without caring about poor people, or they've realized they have a lot of "opportunity" to offer.

Three of the GOP's 2016 presidential hopefuls will present or have already presented anti-poverty plans this week. On Thursday Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled his budget plan to expand opportunity in America. The day before, Sen. Marco Rubio pitched his ideas on social reforms, and on Friday Sen. Rand Paul will focus on helping ex-cons escape the cycle of prison and poverty.

As The Washington Post's Zachary Goldfarb wrote Thursday, this is all a major shift from the "47 percent" GOP of the 2012 presidential election. While it's dangerous for conservatives to show compassion — especially on issues like immigration, as Rep. Eric Cantor learned — it's also dangerous to appear not to care about low-income families. Or as Ryan put it, “I think conservatives have a lot to offer here and we have ignored this space for too long." Here's breakdown of the main points of each plan:

Rep. Paul Ryan

During a speech Thursday at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, Ryan introduced a plan that would consolidate federal funding for 11 safety net programs into one lump sum, according to MSNBC. States that opted for the "opportunity grant" would then be able to disburse the aid between the programs as they saw fit. “We’re reconceiving the federal government’s role,” Ryan said.

more
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/07/rubio-ryan-and-paul-compete-to-be-the-most-compassionate-conservative/374988/

[Johonny]

1. His new plan is to erase the current plan and replace it with... nothing

but an IOU on a plan to be names later in your state. They tried this just recently with the health care exchanges. While 14 states managed to make their exchanges in time... 36 didn't. Hey California and New York still have food stamps, how's your state doing? If democrats proposed replacing national defense with a 50 individual state solutions to defense they would be laughed at. If Obama came out tomorrow and proposed eliminating immigration services and replacing it with a Paul Ryan lump sum to states where each state has it's own immigration policy, he'd be laughed at. Yet Paul Ryan is a serious politician. L O L G O P.

[Faux pas]

2. GAG, GAG and GAG

some more. Maybe they're hoping for mass suicides so they don't have to worry about the the poor.