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Rick Santorum Cherry Picks Parts Of 2009 Brookings Study He Likes, Ignores Everything Else

During Monday night's South Carolina Republican debate, Rick Santorum told the audience what they wanted to hear about poverty -- that if you're poor in America, it's your own damn fault. WILLIAMS: Senator Santorum, the Obama administration

of the following:
  • The extent of mobility --- both within and across generations --- in American society and how it compares to other countries. [Note: it compares very poorly.]
  • What has been happening to middle class families in the U.S. in recent decades and the politics of assisting the poor when the middle class itself is foundering.
  • The concentration of income and wealth at the very top of the distribution.

Easy to see why Santorum left this stuff out. Since he's laughably claimed that there are no classes in America, he absolutely doesn't want to touch any of this with a ten-foot pole -- especially the last point, since to Republicans, the concentration of wealth at the top is a feature, not a bug.

But I wish Williams would've asked Santorum two simple follow-up questions: why did poverty increase when Republicans were running the country during the 2000s--and why are the most conservative states also the poorest?

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