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Beck claims new poverty measure would put him "on the poverty scale" since it would "compare" him to wealthier neighbors

March 10, 2010 11:26 am ET

From the March 10 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

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Commerce Dept. press release: Census Bureau to Develop Supplemental Poverty Measure

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    • Author by nerzog (March 10, 2010 11:28 am ET)
      8  
      It's really sad when someone is an idiot and a liar.
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    • Author by epkklk851 (March 10, 2010 11:45 am ET)
      7  
      Glennie, you are constantly comparing yourself to your fellow cable anchors and DJs. All that talk about how you must be right because you have higher ratings or books on the best seller list, what's that about if it isn't a comparison? And I am quite sure that there is no way you would be on anyone's poverty scale, unless it was poverty of morals or character, and then you'd be at the top.
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    • Author by bintx (March 10, 2010 12:07 pm ET)
      6  
      A 50 million dollar contract does not qualify one for admission to the growing number of the impoverished. Jerk.
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    • Author by Dhalgren (March 10, 2010 12:16 pm ET)
      5  
      No trophy for you, Glenda.
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    • Author by sonnyjames (March 10, 2010 12:34 pm ET)
      4  
      *Sighs*
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    • Author by FDR_democrat (March 10, 2010 12:35 pm ET)
      6  
      I love his claim that "we come into this world alone," and how that somehow justifies his anti-communitarian attitudes. Has he ever, even once, witnessed a human birth? Unless the mother dies in childbirth, which is happily a lot more rare than it used to be, we DO NOT come into this world alone.

      But somehow, his audience will accept this obvious untruth, along with the others.
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      • Author by raddave43 (March 10, 2010 1:08 pm ET)
        1  
        And don't forget twins, they come in the world with someone else.
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    • Author by marco21 (March 10, 2010 12:38 pm ET)
      7  
      Amazing wingnuts can lunch on Spam (if they lunch at all because of unemployment) and listen to this tripe from millionaires like Rush and Beck claim common man status.
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      • Author by Marker (March 10, 2010 12:55 pm ET)
        4  
        Good point. I have a local loud mouth by the name of Tom Barnard KQRS, he does the same "common blue collar man" routine. The guy doesn't even go join his other toadies in the studio, he walks downstairs in his own house and gets on the air. He's a millionaire with another house in Florida (that he broadcasts from when MN is too cold) but he's a man of the people and the dorks listen to this jerk.
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        • Author by scanlontodd9871 (March 10, 2010 1:46 pm ET)
          2  
          Marker, this sounds like Latrell Sprewell of the Wolves a few years back when they offered him a contract of 20 Million or so. He turned it down because he said it was not enough to feed his kids. What a joke Beck is. I really feel for him. Pathetic
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      • Author by Leftylib (March 10, 2010 12:55 pm ET)
           
        Calling Beck and Limbaugh "commen men" is like calling Bonnie and Clyde "police officers". LOL
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    • Author by Midnight Kevin (March 10, 2010 1:04 pm ET)
      2  
      Boohoo... I'm Glenn Beck... I make millions of dollars but I'm just like everybody else... boohoo...
      ----------------------------------
      The Midnight Review
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    • Author by wolf kotenberg (March 10, 2010 1:13 pm ET)
         
      and i thought you were Paul Revere, a man with more riches than money can buy.
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    • Author by IRONY 101 (March 10, 2010 1:14 pm ET)
         
      Now he'll have to drink wine out of a bottle with a screw-on cap.
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    • Author by 4teepee (March 10, 2010 1:21 pm ET)
      2  
      Gee, what is the location of the mansion of this "man of the people."
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    • Author by magnolialover (March 10, 2010 1:29 pm ET)
      1  
      Well Mr. Beck, you know what to do right? Move to a cheaper neighborhood so that you can be the richest dude on the block.
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      • Author by epkklk851 (March 10, 2010 2:02 pm ET)
        1  
        I looked up his house on the internet, it's got a lake view and woods all around, part of his estate backs up against a house that hasn't been lived in for 57 years (owned by the 103 year old recluse, Huegette Clark). I wouldn't be moving if I were him.
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    • Author by nerzog (March 10, 2010 2:44 pm ET)
         
      I guess this is an addendum to their "$250,000 isn't a lot of money" joke.
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      • Author by jgross@orst.edu (March 10, 2010 3:34 pm ET)
           
        The poverty line was established in the 1960s using the cheapest of 4 food plans developed by the USDA based on a 1955 Household Food Consumption Survey. People at that time were spending about a third of their income on food, so the price of this cheap food plan was multiplied by 3 to arrive at the poverty line. Since then, it has been adjusted somewhat for inflation, but not in the way it has been calculated. This is problematic since today Americans spend less than a sixth of their income on food, with housing, transportation and utilities taking up a much larger chunk. Also, in the 1950s, 60s, there were far more family-wage jobs, whereas today, childcare costs impact young families’ budgets to a much greater extent. Welfare organizations have long recognized that the official poverty line is way too low and have adjusted the eligibility for some low income programs to 185% of poverty or 200% of poverty. However, keeping the poverty line artificially low does make the US look much better in national statistics. The current changes are an attempt to be more honest about poverty in the US. Beck’s examples are a purposeful misunderstanding of how the new calculation will take into consideration the differences in cost of living in different areas of the country.
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    • Author by shaggles (March 10, 2010 4:48 pm ET)
         
      Isn't that exactly the kind of thing the right has been pushing? Was it Limbaugh who said just a couple of weeks ago that in some places you'd be poor if you only made $250K? I guess it's like the old Groucho Marx song "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It".
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    • Author by aj.physics (March 10, 2010 7:07 pm ET)
         
      From my understanding, the poverty line is something around $20,000. for a family of 4, is that about right? I thought I remembered people trying to move the line up to make it a livable wage/income and it moved so many people under the poverty line that the government at that time moved it back down. I do know that when I lived in Boulder CO I was paying about as much rent on a studio apartment that my friend in Alabama was paying for a 3 bedroom house.
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