Census Bureau's Poverty Definition Lambasted

In a subcommittee hearing this month in the US, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has raised serious issues with current official definitions of 'what it means to be poor or in poverty in America', suggesting the figure should be 1% not 11%. Commerce Secretary Harold Lutnick appeared to agree to a review.

The conversation took place in the Senate Commerce Justice Science Appropriations Subcommittee, and was reported this week by the Census Project. The Census Bureau is under the jurisdiction of Lutnick's Commerce Department, and is in charge of the definition and reporting of poverty. Official stats have until now suggested that around 11 percent of Americans 'live at or below the poverty level.'

Sen. Kennedy pointed out that calculations are currently based on adding two figures, income earned by an individual and cash income that the individual gets from the federal government - the latter including SSI or TANF payments. Lutnick was asked 'Are you aware that your agency doesn't count non-cash payments from the Federal Government defining poverty?' and answered that he was uncertain.

Non-cash payments excluded from the calculations include refundable earned income tax credits, food stamps, housing subsidies, utility bill subsidies, Medicaid and free school meals, according to Sen. Kennedy. Asked if he was aware of this, Secretary Lutnick responded: 'It sounds to me that you and I are going to spend some time together and we're going to change it, but I did not know that. And it sounds like something that we should add.'

Sen. Kennedy provided what he said was a 'real life' example of a mother with two children earning $11,000 but in receipt of '$3,400 in refundable tax credits... $9,200 in food stamps... $9,500 in housing subsidies, $900 in utility bill subsidies, $16,000 in Medicaid, $3,100 a year in free school lunches, and $6,600 a year in TANF.' He concluded 'That's $64,100 a year, tax free.' [DRNO makes it $59,600, but not too far off]. '..Is she living in poverty?' The Commerce Secretary replied that it 'did not sound like' she was living in poverty.

Kennedy said his purpose was 'not to punish people who need help' but to insist that the Bureau 'give the American people a little credit,' for spending '$1.4 trillion a year helping people that other countries would allow to die in a ditch.' He concluded, 'Your Census Bureau says it's 11% who live at or below the poverty level. That's a lie. It's 1%. If you count - as any person with a brain above a single cell organism would - cash and non-cash payments, they're not, they're above the poverty level. And we ought to be honest with the American people and thank them for getting the poverty level down to 1% instead of... calling them selfish.'

Web site: www.thecensusproject.org .