by Blair Boyd and David Albrecht
At the Democratic Debate in Las Vegas on November 15th, former Senator John Edwards presented several statistics involving hunger, poverty, and health care in the United States. His claim:
“Thirty-five million Americans last year went hungry. Thirty-seven million people in this country live in poverty every day. Forty-seven million Americans have no health care coverage.”
Is Edwards exaggerating the problem, or is he entirely correct?
Statistics from reliable sources back up Edwards’ claim, beginning with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA said that in 2006, a total of 12.65 million households suffered from “food insecurity”. These 12.65 million households include 35.52 million people, 12.63 million of them children. The USDA measures “food insecurity” as “having difficulty acquiring enough food for the household throughout the year.” This survey conducted represented 294 million people. With the government's estimate of the 2006 population just shy of 300 million, the survey from which Edwards draws his statement gains credibility and accuracy.
According to the Institute for Research on Poverty, in 2006it was measured in that 36.5 million people (12.3 percent of the total U.S. population) lived in poverty. Poverty is measured by comparing pretax income with the poverty threshold, which is determined by family size and composition. These thresholds were developed by taking the cost of a minimum adequate diet for families of different sizes and multiplying the cost by three to allow for other expenses. Families that fall below that threshold are then considered poor.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent data on those without health care puts figures at an estimated 47 million. This number has risen from 2005, putting it at an all time high.
Lesson: Presidential candidates need to make sure the facts they are presenting to the public are the correct information. Edwards has done a good job here of presenting the correct facts on this important issue. He has done the research to present accurate figures, lending credibility to his experience on povery issues.
