Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:
Long article, gist is Obama administration creating new statistical model to define “poverty” which will have the effect of making it look as if millions of people suddenly are no longer poor, just in time for the election.
Gotta be careful – we could all be “the rich” at this rate.
Well that’s a lot like the Vikings commercial pimping a new stadium. It’s “our team”. If it’s “our team”, I’d like my share of the profits. I’ll even do direct deposit.
Doakes is right to be concerned. The Obama Administration decided to change the definition of “poor” in our country by making the poverty line float as opposed to a fixed statistical definition that’s been used for years (they also – wisely on their part – left non-cash and other gov’t contributions out of the formula). The Obambot news media (especially the NYT and AP) ran with the new poverty info (half of the US is below the poverty line!) without noting the change in the basis by which people are considered below the poverty line. Mickey Kaus at Daily Caller has done a great job a tracking this deception.
People (and the media – speaking truth to power and all) should be concerned about this loss of the language (e.g: a cut should be an actual reduction in spending, not a reduction in what the budget called for). Whether someone (other than Kaus) in our PTR media gives a crap about this stuff is to be determined, but it doesn’t look very good that it will be challenged.