Willfull Shortsightedness on Poverty

The White House euphoria over the drop in the poverty rate to 14.4 percent in 1984 is deeply disturbing. In celebrating a statistical “triumph,” President Reagan and his staff have obscured a larger injustice.

Any reduction in the number of the poor is, of course, a reason to rejoice. And that is true even though the event is hardly a surprise. Every expert predicted the 1984 decline in poverty because real economic growth of almost 6 percent in that year would inevitably h...