Chairman Cruz and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit written comments about the challenges facing low-income individuals and families in today’s economy. I am Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization dedicated to developing and promoting private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector.
Many agree that “more can be done” to ensure economic opportunity for all Americans. A census report on poverty rates found that of the 43 million U.S. citizens living in poverty from 2007- 2011, 76 percent were black, Native American or Hispanic. Over the past 50 years the U.S. government has spent $5 trillion on anti-poverty programs. But the demand that the “more” must be done by government through a stronger safety net, wealth redistribution and mandated equality measures overshadows the years of evidence that more often than not, government programs fail. Over the past 30 years, NCPA has published a number of studies describing the effects of overregulation and its harmful effects on minorities. Many of these efforts discourage wise choices, limit educational opportunities and create burdensome regulations that hinder entrepreneurship.