Rubio, Ryan, Sen. Rand Paul and others act as if we have been pursuing progressives’ preferred prescriptions to fight poverty over the past 50 years. In fact, during the Reagan years, under George W. Bush and after the 2009 stimulus, which itself was composed of one-third tax cuts, we have been pursuing conservatives’ preferred economic strategy, especially since the tea party took over the House of Representatives in 2010-11. We have been cutting spending, imposing austerity and forcing out-of-work and out-of-luck Americans to go it alone, to turn to food pantries or to throw themselves on the mercy of private charities, just as conservatives desire.

We’ve also been cutting taxes for all but the super-rich. The stock market is soaring. CEOs and 1-percenters have been making out like robber barons.

Republican governors are choking off the last vestiges of union representation. And Republicans at the state and federal level have rejected public investments in the kind of jobs the unemployed desperately want: rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, expanding high-speed rail or creating the high technology we now pretty much only buy from Japan.

We’ve been doing precisely what conservatives want done.

And shock of all shocks, poverty is winning.

You can Reid Joy’s article in its entirety at The Miami Herald.