"These steps plus our investments in education will reduce the poverty rate to below 7 percent from its current level of over 14 percent."
The CAP actually build into their plan the economic impact of a 7 percent decline in the US poverty rate!!! WOW! That is a glaring flaw in their thinking and perhaps as intellectually dishonest a claim as one could find. Here is why. All budget plans (Ryan plan, CAP plan whatever) are smoke and mirrors because they project earnings and project revenues. In other words, they guess that certain increases in spending ( in the case of CAP) or reductions in taxes (in the case of Conservative plans) will somehow magically raise revenue. Historically, both claims are difficult to prove.
However, the poverty reduction claim is so glaringly misleading it borders on propaganda. The U.S. poverty rate has barely budged on average since prior to 1965 when the US undertook widespread social program funding.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/29/bill-oreilly/bill-oreilly-says-poverty-hasnt-budged-1965-despit/ .
Politifact attempted to give this issue a fair hearing but their liberal bias didn't seem to let them. Additionally the issue is a complicated one since historically poverty rates have decreased without government spending. In other words government spending and poverty reduction are NOT inextricably linked. Economic devlopment reduces poverty not government spending. However, I digress, what I found shocking about the CAP claim is that it puts forward a rationale whereby they extrapolate a reduction in poverty levels down to 7 percent due to government spending alone WITHOUT any actual economic analysis (ie, projected growth, increased employment etc.) This is why I am such an opponent of Economilosophy. I just invented that term, its when "Economists" fall victim to selection bias and generate "theories" to fit their ideological leanings. Paul Krugman comes to mind. The problem with Economics is that at its core it deals with understanding the decisions of human beings. Humans are not molecules or elements on the periodic table and they do not behave in predictable or quantifiable ways.
The reality, as a far as I see it, is that our central problem is our absurd belief that Government is in anyway capable of positively affecting our economic lives outside of enforcing contracts and providing protecting of our personal property rights. Government central planning cannot and will not ever be a tool for growing markets, creating jobs or reducing poverty. Moreover, "poverty rates" are almost always income based. Taking total household income relative to GDP etc. yet often ignore standard of living increases. Here are some interesting facts on "poor" Americans.
The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:
- Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
- Eighty five percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 35 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
- The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
- Ninety-eight percent of poor households have a color television; two thirds own two or more color televisions
- Sixty four percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
- Nearly all have a VCR and a DVD player;
- Forty seven percent have a personal computer,
- Eighty two percent own microwave ovens,
- Sixty percent have a stereo,
- and a quarter have an automatic dishwasher.
