Republican president candidate Jeb Bush told
Newsmax TV on Friday that his plan to reform the nation's welfare system would "liberalize" states to "innovate and come up with new approaches so that there is less fraud and abuse and more focus on making sure that people can rise out of poverty.
"The way you would get out of poverty, the best way, is to work, to have a quality education, and to have intact families," Bush, the former Florida governor, told hosts J.D. Hayworth and John Bachman in an exclusive interview on "Newsmax Now."
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"Those three things are the drivers for upward mobility," he said.
Bush unveiled his plan Friday, which would eliminate the federal food stamp program, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — replacing them with "Right to Rise" grants directly to states so they can develop programs particular to their residents.
His proposal also would double the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers and expand the credit to younger workers.
The former governor told Newsmax that, while the "War on Poverty" initially raised living standards for low-income Americans, the poverty rate has not dropped since around 1970.
"It has remained totally flat — and we've spent literally $1 trillion a year," Bush said. "At some point, someone has to say: 'This hasn't worked. Let's try something different.'
"A quality education, a safe community — a focus on marriage being an element of success, where two incomes exist to provide support for families — and making sure that the incentives exist for work rather than non-work is the way to go."
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