AMERICA - Portrait of Poverty, 49 Million and Counting

Question, is this "the American dream?" Not in my book.

"49 Million Americans in Poverty, Census Calculates" PBS Newshour 11/7/2011

Excerpt

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Now a fuller picture of what it means to be poor in America.

For years, the Census Bureau's official measurement of poverty has often been characterized as inadequate. One month after releasing official numbers, the Census Bureau offered a new unofficial count today that looked at the poor through a different lens.

It found there are approximately 49 million people living at or below the poverty line. That's about 16 percent of the population, or roughly one out of every six people, and 2.5 million more than counted just last month. That's just one of the changes. The government also assessed in a new way how income and living expenses affect all this.

We round out the picture now with Ron Haskins, co-director of the Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families, where, among other things, he follows poverty, inequality and welfare policy. And Heidi Hartmann is president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a policy research organization focused on women and the economy.

And, Heidi Hartmann, for years, people have complained about the old poverty line and how we arrive at it, basically taking the cost of food and people's incomes and coming up with a formula. This adds a lot more data into the determination. Is it a better picture of who is poor in the country?

HEIDI HARTMANN, Institute for Women's Policy Research: Oh, absolutely. It's definitely a better picture.

For one thing, the new measure is counting the non-cash benefits that people receive from the government, such as food stamps, that wasn't counted before. So you would expect that to decrease the poverty rate as measured. But this new measure increases the poverty rate. And that's because of some of the expenses now that are being counted that were not counted before.

For example, for older Americans, we're now counting medical expenses. Those are very high for older Americans. So in this new measure, we see more older Americans poor. We're also counting work expenses, so if you're a single mom who is working, you're now getting some benefits that are being measured that weren't being measured before.

But you're also seeing your work expenses being counted, being deducted from your income. So, that's working in the opposite direction. But it's a fuller measure.

Another excerpt

RAY SUAREZ: Quickly, before we go, if you take a good look at what's in these numbers, do you get, if you're not poor, a better idea of what life is really like for those 49 million Americans?

RON HASKINS, Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families: It's pretty hard to tell by looking at numbers.

But if you have an idea, which I think most Americans do, because many Americans have been in poverty in the past or know people who have been in poverty, and you look at the numbers of how many million Americans are poor, I think it's very helpful for America to know that. But I think it's more helpful for them to learn that the government programs make a big difference, and it's helpful for the poor to know that, if they try to work, even if they make low income, they can do much better because of government programs.

So, to me, that's the main message of this report, that government programs are effective in helping poor people, especially if they're helping themselves.

Of course, the Tea Party (aka Republican Party) will never believe Mr. Haskins comment. It goes against their commandment (handed down from Mount Reagan) that government is THE problem.