Poverty Prescriptions: Can we do better than safety nets?

Cameron Smith is a senior fellow and state programs director for the R Street Institute, in which role he coordinates the institute’s ever-growing network of offices at the state level. He also is a regular columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

Earlier in his career, Cameron was vice president and general counsel of the Alabama Policy Institute, where he managed policy, legal and communications operations.

Previously, Cameron had a number of posts in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. He was legislative counsel for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He ran the House Intellectual Property Caucus and was counsel to Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla. He also served as counsel to Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., where his primary legislative project was the REINS Act, which would provide significantly more accountability for Congress regarding the impacts of federal regulation.

Cameron is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and the University of Alabama School of Law. He is a member of the Tennessee and Alabama bars. He resides with his wife, Justine, and their three sons in Vestavia Hills, Ala.

In 1964, America launched into the War on Poverty. Responding to a national poverty rate around 19 percent, President Lyndon Johnson believed that increasing the Federal Government's role in healthcare and education would combat poverty and ultimately prevent it. As recently as 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent, in the Southeast the poverty rate is largely unchanged or worse. In spite of trillions in spending, something isn't working. Are there better solutions than our current social safety nets and government programs? Are there policy prescriptions producing better results right now?