Ending Poverty Requires Serious Policy, Not Political Platitudes

At times, the California Legislature is reminiscent of a high-school student council, except that instead of working with few-hundred-dollar activities budget lawmakers are spending more than $300 billion in revenues. I'm not the first commentator to notice that politicians often promise things they can't possibly provide—and are no more realistic than a student body president offering free pizza on Fridays.

What can you do? Democracy is, as Winston Churchill said, "the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Fast forward to the...