Census Bureau
ORG
Census Bureau
A brief report this week from the Census Bureau, highlighting how welfare programs and tax credits affect incomes among the poor, has fanned the politically charged debate on poverty in the United States and how best to measure it, with conservatives offering praise and liberals saying it underplays the extent of deprivation. Over the last decade, a host of technical studies by the National Academy of Sciences, academic scholars, and the Census Bureau have analyzed incomes and needs under varying assumptions. In a news release this week, the bureau called the report ''part of an ongoing Census Bureau effort to understand economic well-being and poverty in America,'' adding that the bureau ''has been working to streamline and simplify the many ways to consider the poverty rate.'' Bureau officials did not respond to requests yesterday by telephone and e-mail for further comment on the report and its critics. Census Bureau releases a report stating how welfare programs and tax credits affect incomes among the poor which has fanned the politically charged debate on poverty in the United States. The incomes and needs under varying assumptions, over the last decades was analyzed by various hosts of technical studies by the National Academy of Sciences, academic scholars and the Census Bureau.