Ryan’s Misleading Review of the Safety Net

House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan’s new report on safety net programs and poverty is disappointing, we explain in a new commentary.

Here’s an excerpt:

Though it purports to be a balanced, evidence-based review of the safety net, it falls far short of that standard.  It’s replete with misleading and selective presentations of data and research, which it uses to portray the safety net in a negative light.  It also omits key research and data that point in more positive directions.

For several years now, Chairman Ryan (R-WI) has proposed annual budgets that would deeply cut programs for the poor.  The Ryan budgets have consistently secured between 60 and 67 percent of their budget cuts from programs for low- or moderate-income people.  The true test of Chairman Ryan’s forthcoming budget with regard to poverty will lie in whether it follows past practice and targets programs for less-fortunate Americans for the lion’s share of its savings.  Unfortunately, the new report may be, in part, an effort to lay a framework for severe cuts in low-income programs once again.

Click here to read the full commentary.