𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃𝐘 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐔𝐒 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐔: 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐓𝐒 Senator John Kennedy walked a Census Bureau witness through one household, line by line. A mother with two kids. Poverty threshold: $𝟐𝟕,𝟎𝟎𝟎. Her salary: $11,000. By the official measure, she is poor, full... stop. Then he read out what else she receives. $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. 𝘛𝘢𝘹-𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦. That is $𝟒𝟖,𝟕𝟎𝟎 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 $𝟏𝟏,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐬. Nearly sixty thousand dollars against a twenty-seven thousand dollar line. 𝘐𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘺? Kennedy asked. 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳. He is right about the mechanism, and this is the part most people have never been told. The 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲. It has worked that way since the 1960s. Food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers, the earned income credit — the overwhelming bulk of what America actually spends on the poor — are invisible to the number politicians quote at each other. Which means the headline figure is built so that no amount of spending can ever move it. Add a trillion dollars in aid and the official rate does not budge, because the official rate was never looking at that money. Two honest caveats, because my readers check. The Census does publish a second measure that counts the benefits, and it lands near 13 percent rather than Kennedy's one percent — because it also subtracts taxes, medical costs and work expenses, and uses a higher bar. And $16,000 of his total is Medicaid's insurance value, which is real but does not buy groceries. Strip those out and his point survives intact. 𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝. Then we argue about a statistic that was designed not to notice. 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐲. 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.show more

M.A. Rothman

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