Political Quotes

“Mr. Presidents, I rise today to introduce the Poverty Data Correction Act of 1999, a bill to require that any data relating to the incidence of poverty in subnational areas be corrected for the differences in the cost of living in those areas. This legislation would correct a longstanding inequity and would provide us with more accurate information on the number of Americans living in poverty. Residents of states such as New York and Connecticut earn more, on average, than do residents of Mississippi or Alabama. But they also must spend more. One need only try to rent an apartment in New York City to understand this. Yet, we have a national poverty threshold adjusted only by family size and composition, not by where the family lives. A family of four just above the poverty threshold in New York City or Anchorage is demonstrably worse off than a family of four just below the threshold in, say, rural Arkansas. And yet that family in New York might be ineligible for federal aid and will not count in the tallies of the poverty population used to allocate funds among the states, while the Arkansas family will be eligible and will be counted.”