Obama is Out of the Spotlight… but on the record for a New Poverty Measure

OOTS sources tipped us off that President-elect Obama himself (not just his staff) has gone on record during the campaign stating his support for overhauling the federal poverty measure. We۪ve obtained a letter, dated August 17, 2007, and addressed to Los Angeles City Councilmember Richard Alaracon, in which the now president-elect states that we “should modernize the Federal Poverty Guidelines to more accurately reflect the costs of living and the economic pressures on American families.” The letter is posted on Spotlight.

 
All OOTS can say is that one upside of the interminable two-year long presidential campaign is that candidates went on record, at some point or another, on pretty much every issue under the sun!
 
By the way, in case you’re wondering, Richard Alaracon is a long-time proponent of a changed poverty measure, both within Los Angeles as well as at the federal level. He has been pushing to have LA follow in the footsteps of New York City and adopt new poverty guidelines. Around the time of this correspondence with Obama, Alaracon also provided testimony in Congress about the need for a better measure. 

With strong support in the House and Senate, and with President-elect Obama in favor of it, smart money says that Ron Haskins and Becky Blank are right when they predict federal action before the end of 2009!  

Posted by Shelley

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Here at “Out of the Spotlight” we love rumors and gossip (at least of the non-malicious type), so if you hear names that you think we should pay attention to, drop us a line at either mlaracy@aecf.org or watersboots@hotmail.com.We۪ll post new names as we get em! Of course, OOTS dishes on much more than who might be on the dream team. Check out “Out of the Spotlight” for our take on behind-the-scenes policy sparring, the twists and turns of political plans, and more. Contributions welcome!