It’s one thing to write policy recommendations; it is quite another to develop effective policy. Ironically, some of those who develop policy recommendations oppose those same ideas when implemented into policy –– especially when the wrong party does the implementing. For instance, the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families just released a report, “Attacking Poverty and Inequality: Reinvigorate the Fight for Greater Opportunity.” Here’s how the press release for their paper begins.
The nation’s poverty rate is higher now than it was in the 1970s and there are large and growing gaps between the rich and the poor. No President since Lyndon Johnson has made fighting poverty a major plank of his campaign or goal of his administration.
Are these statements true? Yes. Do the statements give a fair and insightful representation of the facts? Hardly. Such statements will get the media’s attention, but why should top rank analysts like Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill pander to the media? The Brookings Institution ranks as one of Washington’s most prestigious liberal think tanks. Brookings is a big, top-drawer operation with $302 million in assets and is extremely well-funded by foundations with $56 million in operating revenue. By comparison the largest conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has only about half as many assets, $160 million, and operating revenue of $40 million.
The first two sentences in the press release (which compress the first paragraph of the Haskins-Sawhill report) significantly misrepresent the facts of the situation. To see why they were inserted, ask whether readers, particularly reporters looking for a story, would have gotten the same sense of conditions under the current administration in the 2000-2005 period as compared to the 1970-1975 period if the opening sentence had read:
Poverty rates for both unrelated individuals and persons in all family subgroups of the population, with one minor exception, are lower in 2005 than they were when the overall poverty rate reached its historic low of 11.1 percent in 1973 under the Nixon administration.”
Alternatively, what would the reader have come away with if the lead sentence had read as follows?
The poverty rate for children living in female-headed families was nearly 10 percentage points lower in 2005 than it was in 1973 when the overall poverty rate was at its historic low.”