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BARACK OBAMA: We've got a justice gap when too many black boys and girls pass through a pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails. This is one area where things have gotten worse. When I was in college, about half a million people in America were behind bars. Today there are about 2.2 million. Black men are about six times likelier to be in prison right now than white men.
[END VIDEO]
BILL O'REILLY (HOST): So why are there so many more Americans in prison? Three reasons: Fathers abandoning their children, a culture that glorifies crude and sometimes criminal behavior, and the illegal narcotics industry, much of it based in poor areas. None of those things were mentioned by the president. The cold truth is there has been a failure to lead on culture and family issues, and that has led to bad behavior being excused, sometimes even accepted.
American society has grown so permissive and politically correct that solving poverty is almost impossible. Anyone who raises questions about so-called entertainment that instructs children to reject civil behavior is immediately attacked in vile ways on the net. Anyone lamenting the African-American out-of-wedlock birthrate risks being branded a racist.
I know for a fact that Barack Obama understands and is appalled by the culture swamp. Why then isn't he attacking it? As for schools, we continue to pour record amounts of money into public education, but nothing gets better. Why? Because the system refuses to provide discipline, direction, or competition through school vouchers for the poor.
