Paying for the Poor?

In 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson established the War on Poverty. Since, the United States has spent over $9 trillion on government welfare programs. Even though we are feeding impoverished people with money they just can't seem to pull themselves out of the loop. We have just as many impoverished people in United States now than ever. The rate of poverty in America can be approximately 13%-17% at any given time. I think people in poverty are just biting the hand that feeds and aren't trying to take the money they are basically given and putting it to use. In order for the impoverished to become fiscally stable they need to learn and improve not simply get paid by the government to "get by". In 2009 we spent ~$500 billion dollars on welfare programs, that is enough to supply every man woman and child in poverty ~$12,000; and for what, so they can spend the money and come back begging for more. Benjamin Franklin once said “I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” I believe that is how we should treat the poor, as cruel as it may sound we need to increase convince these people to get back to the United States fundamentals and create businesses and jobs; this country thrives off of the little people.