This is a letter that I sent to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette on 06/03/2007.
To The Editor:
It is not necessary to consider this letter for publication. Please have your editorial writers read this for criticism of their Sunday editorial on "Rising Tides".
Does your editorial refer to the CBO article titled "Changes in the Economic Resources of Low-Income Households with Children"?
If so, you might consider publishing the graph at the head of the report so that readers can judge for themselves if you have presented a fair analysis of the implications.
The dramatic increase in income of the poor occurred between 1993 and 2000. Since 2000 the income of the poor has declined. The years 1993 to 2000 nicely match the tenure of Bill Clinton. In fact, in any years covered by this report when Reagan disciples were in office, the income of the poor did actually decline.
How can you say that welfare accounts for part of the growth, when the report states that, "The change was driven by a large increase in earnings during the late 1990s for the group, the effect of which was partially mitigated by a decline in public assistance benefits (or what is often called welfare) (see Figure 1)."
Notice that the quote said that welfare benefits declined. In fact you could just publish the quote if graphs are not your thing.
/Steve Greenberg
P.S. In this day of the internet, you can no longer bamboozle all of your readers by misinterpreting a report that you hope they cannot access.