HOW TO DISCOUNT THE POOR

TheFT has it down:

About 1.3m Americans fell into poverty last year, while the total without medical insurance swelled by 1.4m, according to official figures released on Thursday that will provide further political ammunition for John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.

...The figures play to the agenda of Mr Kerry, who has argued that the Bush administration has lavished favours on the wealthy to the detriment of middle- and lower-income families.

Yes, more people have fallen into poverty and lost their health care insurance under President Bush's economic policies. But in this view, these statistics are more instruments of political rhetoric than scientific measurements of True economic reality. (Never mind that the numbers are produced by a government agency run by the Bush administration).

Those dastardly Democrats...always exploiting poor people for political gain.