The business of war...

Candidone, I guess it's all a matter of perspective. The average American welfare recient owns a car, a television (or 2 or 3), lives in more square footage than your average Parisian (not just the welfare, but all of Paris), many are overweight (not starving), pay for cable television (but not insurance), have access to the same schools everybody else does, etc. That's hardly the definition of poor in a 3rd world country. Insurmountable personal debt? Mostly self-inflicted. Insurmountable national debt? - Nothing is insurmountable. Certainly higher than it should be by a long shot, but we can certainly do something about that - spending cuts across the board would be a great start!

Candidone, I guess it's all a matter of perspective. The average American welfare recient owns a car, a television (or 2 or 3), lives in more square footage than your average Parisian (not just the welfare, but all of Paris), many are overweight (not starving), pay for cable television (but not insurance), have access to the same schools everybody else does, etc. That's hardly the definition of poor in a 3rd world country. Insurmountable personal debt? Mostly self-inflicted. Insurmountable national debt? - Nothing is insurmountable. Certainly higher than it should be by a long shot, but we can certainly do something about that - spending cuts across the board would be a great start!

How many of the poor in this country are illegal aliens? I would think this is also included into the total. They are counted in census data and this is the data that is used in poverty levels.

Ticomaya, the dogs on the street know that the spending in this country is "lopsided" at best. "Where do you get your info?".... . "Where do you live?" What has that got to do with the question that was asked?

How do I know what to be true?

Baldimo wrote:

How do I know what to be true?

How do you know that they are counted in the data that is used to count the poverty rate.

How many of the poor in this country are illegal aliens? I would think this is also included into the total. They are counted in census data and this is the data that is used in poverty levels.

Baldimo wrote:

How many of the poor in this country are illegal aliens? I would think this is also included into the total. They are counted in census data and this is the data that is used in poverty levels.

So what's your point?

candidone1 wrote:

Is it fair to judge poverty #'s based on people who are not US citizens and there for the US govt has no mandate to care for them? Most illegals that move here come here at or below poverty level. This would inflate the #'s of people living in poverty due to this fact.

They would certainly add to it...if they in fact participate fully in the census process. Illegal residents tend to not be so diligent to report their existence to governing agencies, I imagine.
Plus, massive job losses throughout the midwest and the rest of the nation have contributed more to that demographic than illegal aliens.
If you want to argue the point that the statistics are skewed or misrepresent the reality, then the forum is yours. But illegal residents aside, there are still tens of millions of Americans living below and way[/] below the poverty line--and Bush has found money to "liberate" an entire country, whilst denying Americans the same sort of dignity.

In another note, with all the newfound love for the Iraqi people, who are obviously not American, why would Bush not show support for the illegal residents in his own country?
He's bankrolling a "revolution" halfway around the world for so non-Americans can enjoy democracy and the American way.
I have a problem with this in ways that I can't articulate due to time constraints right now....but illegal aliens hardly explains anything to me.

Gotta run!