Rep. Paul Ryan misused data to show poverty programs don’t work, say economists he cited [View all]

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/04/rep-paul-ryan-misused-data-to-show-poverty-programs-dont-work-say-economists-he-cited/



Rep. Paul Ryan misused data to show poverty programs don’t work, say economists he cited
By Travis Gettys
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 12:50 EST

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) misrepresented or misunderstood the data he cited in his exhaustive critique of the federal safety net, said some of the economists he cited in his 204-page report.

The former vice presidential candidate relied heavily on academic research for his report, “The War On Poverty: 50 Years Later,” which was released Monday and noted the poverty rate remained stuck at 15 percent – the highest in a generation.

“And the trends are not encouraging,” Ryan wrote. “Federal programs are not only failing to address the problem. They are also in some significant respects making it worse. Changes are clearly necessary, and the first step is to evaluate what the federal government is doing right now.”

But some authors of that research said Ryan apparently left out or ignored statistics that showed federal anti-poverty programs worked exactly as they were intended, reported The Fiscal Times.