Shimkus shortens War on Poverty, crunches soggy data to make a point

Noted: If given the option, 90 percent of academics and researchers would favor a move away from the reliance on the official poverty rate data, according to Timothy Smeeding, the Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Smeeding said because the Supplemental Poverty Measure takes into account government contributions when determining whether a person is poor, it’s better for tracking the number of poverty-stricken people in the country than the official rate.