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- <text id=89TT0098>
- <title>
- Jan. 09, 1989: American Notes:Washington
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Jan. 09, 1989 Mississippi Burning
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 29
- American Notes
- WASHINGTON
- Recalculating Poverty
- </hdr><body>
- <p> It may be of little comfort to the truly destitute, but the
- number of poor Americans dropped by several million in one day
- last week. By broadening the definition of income to include
- benefits from Medicare and Medicaid, rent subsidies and food
- stamps, the U.S. Census Bureau calculated that 27.6 million
- Americans, 11.6% of the population, lived below the poverty line
- in 1986. Previous computations placed the number of impoverished
- at 32.4 million. The study found Social Security more effective
- than the tax system and need-based welfare programs in lifting
- Americans out of poverty. This will doubtless strengthen Social
- Security's resistance to the budget ax.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-