"Well, obviously, it should be a state issue. It shouldn't be a federal issue. You even admitted it doesn't work very well. Then no, it should be a state issue.

But it has a responsibility, if you understand the economic environment that's necessary that the federal government can create -- sound money, don't overregulate, don't overtax, don't run up deficits. That's the environment that the federal government creates, destroys the job. The whole system of taxation and monetary policy sends our jobs overseas.

So, yes, they have a responsibility. But to say yes, there's only a few people who need our help, so we're going to give food stamps for the very needy. Well, what happens is you give food stamps for the very wealthy and endorse that principle 100 percent."

"Well, I imagine that applies to a few people in the country, but, no, I don't quite come at it that way because the system has been biased against the middle class and the poor. When you destroy a currency, you transfer wealth from the middle class to the wealthy because they have access to the capital and they have a lot of benefits and they get the bailouts. So the poor and the people losing their jobs, wasn't their fault that we followed a very deeply flawed economic system, so I am not so anxious to say, "Yes, it is all your fault, if you want to be rich, you can be rich."

People are begging and pleading for jobs, but there are no jobs as a consequence of bad economic policy. It is the fact that we still accepted the notion that central economic planning and central banking under the Keynesian model can provide prosperity. That's where the flaw is. To blame that on the average person who wants a job, I don't agree with that."

"The misguided federal 'War on Poverty' has proven disastrous to our nation. Federal intervention only resulted in more poverty, as the welfare rolls grew while employment shrank and mothers were encouraged to have children out-of-wedlock because the more children they had, the bigger the check they got from the federal government. I propose getting the federal government out of the way of private charities and institutions that wish to deal with the impoverished, and I want to end federal regulations and subsidies that restrict businesses, discourage renovation and expansion, and further the plight of the poor. Eliminating many taxes and regulations will allow businesses to hire more workers, and make it easier for impoverished areas to be renovated with private and corporate money. True compassionate conservatism means letting individuals, churches, and other groups, not indifferent federal bureaucracies, provide help."