Nutter: Rubio and Co. should visit Philly to see federal dollars at work
In PBS interview, Nutter said he wants Republicans to tour Philadelphia and other urban communities where tax dollars are being used to fight poverty.
Senator Marco Rubio and his Republican colleagues should come to Philadelphia to see how poverty-fighting tax dollars are being used, Mayor Nutter said while discussing poverty on Friday's PBS NewsHour segment.
In the Friday evening interview, PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff asked Nutter what he thought of Rubio's recent comments that costly poverty programs have not had the intended effect of getting people out of poverty and that the federal government can only do so much.
"I wish that many elected officials… especially many on the Republican side of the aisle, I wish that they would actually come on the ground and see what's going on in communities all across the United States of America," Nutter said in the televised interview.
Nutter criticized Republicans' proposal to cut the food stamp program and the Community Development Block Grant Program.
"Some would do better to come on the ground, come walk the streets that I know and see what positive things are going on in communities, how dollars are being utilized, and that their actions and their rhetoric is actually damaging the American public that they claim to want to help."
The mayor also discussed the Philadelphia's 26 percent poverty rate, the new Promise Zone designation for a portion of West Philadelphia and how that will give the city greater access to federal grants. To watch the entire interview, click here.
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