Poverty is mostly out of peoples' minds, unless you are mired in it. Nick Johnson is a YouTuber (with 899K subscribers) who drives around the US recording poverty. Today he posted Exploring The Deep South's Worst Ghettos. This Is The USA? - YouTube. One of the worst places is Shreveport, Louisiana (see starting at TS 45:28). Shreveport is the Congressional District of the new Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson!
Speaker Johnson has proudly posted his conservative principles prominently on his Congressional website: Core Principles of Conservatism | U.S. Congressman Mike Johnson. Seventh on the list of seven is Human Dignity, that:
Because all men are created equal and in the image of God, every human life has inestimable dignity and value, and every person should be measured only by the content of their character. . . . Public policy should always encourage education and emphasize the virtue of hard work as a pathway out of-poverty, while public assistance programs should be reserved only for those who are truly in need. In America, everyone who plays by the rules should get a fair shot.
But more important to the political position of the Republican far-right, that Johnson is part of, is the fifth one, Fiscal Responsibility:
Because government has refused to live within its means, America is facing an unprecedented debt and spending crisis. Federal debt now exceeds $33.5 trillion, and our current fiscal path is unsustainable and dangerous, jeopardizing our nation's economic growth, stability and the security of future generations. Congress has a moral and constitutional duty to resolve the crisis, bring spending under control, balance the federal budget, reform and modernize entitlement programs, eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, pursue continued pro-growth tax reforms and permanent tax reductions, and restore regular order and accountability in the budget and appropriations processes.
Speaker Johnson totally ignores the role of the Republican party in creating those large deficits,[1] much of them due to Republican tax cuts during the Reagan, Bush(es) and Trump presidencies, and he wants to make sure they are made "permanent." No where will you find Mike Johnson and Republicans acknowledging the estimated $50 trillion that have been transferred from 90% of Americans to the top 10%[2] since 1980.
Speaker Johnson and the Republican Study Committee should read a recent book, "The Injustice of Place"[3]:
Three of the nation’s top scholars – known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America – turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there.
This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, poring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and corrupt government officials, the “internal colonies” in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse.
Speaker Johnson proclaims his faith in God and Individual Freedom, but the "truths" that he proclaims, "that all of us are created equal and granted by God the same inherent freedoms, such as the natural and unalienable rights to life, liberty, conscience, free speech and the free exercise of religion, . . . ." are not the realities of life for many people in the Louisiana District he represents, and are represented in many states by Republican controlled governments, and some 37 million people in the US.[4]