Public Programs Keep Millions Out of Poverty, New Study Shows

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/public-programs-keep-millions-out-of-poverty-new-study-shows/

May 18, 2011 at 4:54 pm

With anti-poverty programs under serious attack in Washington, here’s something to keep in mind: a major new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that public programs keep one in six Americans out of poverty — primarily the elderly, disabled, and working poor — and that the poverty rate would double without these programs.

Without the cash and non-cash income provided by programs such as Social Security, SNAP (formerly food stamps), and the Earned Income Tax Credit:

The share of Americans below the poverty line in 2004 ($19,307 for a family of four) would have more than doubled, from 13.5 percent to 29 percent. That is, 45 million more Americans would have been poor.

The share of Americans in “deep poverty,” with incomes below half the poverty line, would have more than tripled, to 21 percent.

The share of Americans who are poor or near-poor, with incomes below one-and-a-half-times the poverty line, would have risen to about 40 percent.

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