By Danilo Trisi, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The poverty rate has fallen by nearly half since 1967, largely due to the growing effectiveness of economic security programs such as Social Security, food assistance, and tax credits for working families, according to a comprehensive poverty measure known as the anchored Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). Unlike the official poverty measure, the SPM counts the value of tax credits and non-cash benefits such as food assistance and rent subsidies (among other methodological differences), as most analysts favor. Read the entire story here
