I seriously doubt 1 in 2 Americans is living in poverty. You would have to redefine poverty to a ridiculous level to say half of all Americans are impoverished. Hidden agenda here. Inside every liberal university professor (poverty studies?) is a glory-seeking, megalomaniac bursting to get out. How better to get his idol Obama (odds are this clown is the head of the local “Get Dear Leader Re-elected in 2012” committee) re-elected than to publish some spurious study claiming people, many of whom are obese, live in nice houses, have more than two cars,tv sets, etc. are living in poverty because of some redefinition of the term.
This article is a cynical cover for entitlement fraud. The census number simply don't add up.
What they neglect to point out is that the median household income as of the most recent June 2011 is 49,900 which accounts for the recent economic downturn. This means House holds with incomes in the the $50,000 range are being considered “poor” which is total BS
The truth is that we have many people with high incomes ripping off the system and we have others, many illegal aliens, fraudulently receiving welfare entitlement's under fake identities (often multiple false Identities,)
I have personally witnesses a Spanish speaking Hispanic family have three family members, the father, the mother and the teenage daughter purchase hundreds of dollars each of supplies at Wal Mart at midnight on a Sunday.
The Father pulled out and sorted through 5 or 6 state welfare EBT cards, each of which had it's own ID card and distributed the cards to his wife and daughter. In our state, each household is issued one and only one card per family.
No one cared a bit and they did not even try to hide what they were doing.
On the way out they were parked near to me so I made it a point to pass by all three of them loading their haul into their car.
They were driving a brand new red Ford Excursion four wheel drive SUV with beige leather interior with Sonora Mexico plates.
Poor indeed.
The reality is that entitlement fraud is bankrupting our system. California did an audit that showed that 60 PERCENT of LA County entitlement spending was fraudulent. I California, LA County entitlement spending is on the order of 18 BILLION dollars per year. That is just for LA County alone
You do the math
If you want an educational experience go to the Pico Rivera Wal Mart on a typical evening. All cash registers packed 10-15 people deep, most all of them speaking Spanish illegal aliens and at least 80 % paying with the distinctive California DES Welfare EBT card. Wonder what happened to all of those welfare queens when their lifetime 5 years of welfare expired?
Social workers and community organizers worked to get them and each and every family member qualified as long term mentally disabled so they could receive permanent, life long Social Security benefits to the tune of $500 per month per person. On the streets they call this scam “ crazy money”
This one “crazy money” scam alone is costing Soc Sec about 55 billion dollars per year out of a Soc Sec yearly budget is currently 750 billion per year, so about 7.5 percent of our Soc Sec budget is being wasted on the crazy money scam. There are many more disability scams like this one that are bankrupting Soc Sec. Social Security is no longer the noble last bastion keeping granny from doing here food shopping on the cat food aisle. It's the new frontier of entitlement fraud.
Listening to Rush, you know he or his staff read this thread earlier.