War on Poverty taught women to stay single for handouts, says Fox's John Stossel

Women have learned to remain single to receive benefits from the government, according to Fox Business host John Stossel, and they want handouts.

Stossel said on Fox News' Fox & Friends that the "War on Poverty" only helped the nation's poor for five years. After that, progress stopped because people -- particularly women -- learned to depend on government handouts, he explained.

"They taught women, 'better not have a man in your house because you'll get more money if there's no guy there,'" Stossel remarked. "And so people adjusted their behavior. And now they want more handout -- what didn't work, the handouts -- they want to do more of."

"And my point is that you're going to get income inequality when people are free," he continued. "Some people will do much better than others, and that's okay because under that system the poor do better too."

January 8 marked the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson's announcement of a "war on poverty," in which he pushed for legislation that eventually resulted in the federal programs known as Medicaid, Medicare, and food stamps (now known as Supplemental Assistance for Needy Families), along with educational reforms.

Watch video, via Media Matters, below: