Two possible contenders for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio, spoke last night at a dinner of the Jack Kemp Foundation, and their remarks are worth a read.
Senator Rubio took up the monetary policy issue that was largely neglected by Governor Romney during the 2012 campaign. Said Mr. Rubio:
Sound monetary policy would also encourage middle class job creation. The arbitrary way in which interest rates and our currency are treated is yet another cause of unpredictability injected into our economy. The Federal Reserve Board should publish and follow a clear monetary rule – to provide greater stability about prices and what the value of a dollar will be over time.
Rep. Ryan focused (link via Politico Playbook) on lifting people out of poverty:
Just last year, total federal and state spending on means-tested programs came to more than one trillion dollars. What does that mean in practical terms? For that amount of money, you could give every poor American a check for $22,000. Instead, we spent all that money trying to fight poverty through government programs.
What do we have to show for it? Today, 46 million people are living in poverty. During the last four years, the number of people on food stamps has gone up by 15 million. One out of every four students fails to earn a high-school diploma. In our major cities, half of our kids don't graduate. Half.
When Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, he predicted we would eliminate poverty in 35 to 50 years. Here we are, 48 years later, and poverty is winning. We deserve better.