Senator Marco Rubio's office hyped his speech Wednesday as an "Address on the 50th Anniversary of the 'War on Poverty'", a rather grand billing given its familiar proposals. Rubio has slipped in and out of a few different presidential wrappers since he appeared in the US Capitol. He used to be "The Republicans' Obama". His proposals suggest that now he is the Latino Rick Santorum.

In 2012, Santorum outlined the exact same three-point anti-poverty plan: promote marriage, eliminate federal poverty programs in favor of block grants to states, and "something something America hope-dream-optimism something".

Of these three ideas, I'm probably most sympathetic to the first: sociological studies do show an enduring link between intact families and upward mobility. I'm not sure what the government's role in promoting marriage should be, though I guess it might include allowing any two people who love each other to commit to it. Both Rubio and Santorum stop short of endorsing that level of promotion. There's also a problem of causation.