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The article emphasizes the poor method of measuring poverty in the U.S., citing 1992 data from the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau estimates that 14.5 per cent of the U.S. population lived in poverty in 1992. Since 1980, the rate of poverty in the U.S. has hovered around 14 per cent. In reality, the nation is doing a good job at addressing the problem, but by definition virtually all of the efforts are excluded from the data because poverty is measured on the basis of pre-tax money income, excluding capital gains. In addition, the data also exclude a big share of the government's efforts to ease poverty. The Census Bureau takes into account only cash grants and excluding Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches and rent subsidies. By including such items, the poverty rate can be reduced from 14.5 per cent to 11.7 per cent.

This article explains that the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee approved an expansion of the earned income tax credit, a subsidy for poor families. The move signals congressional Democrats' drive to regain the social-policy initiative from Republicans. It may set the stage for a bigger social welfare package in 1989.

Argues against the proposed subsidizing of deserving poor American authors. Challenges faced by a committee that would decide which author to subsidize; Question on subsidizing another type of person, such as a bank clerk; Difference between saving a person to preserve human life and saving a person to preserve his literary life; Impact of subsidies on the development of real talent or on the selection of the right career; Author's use of his own experience as writer of the book "The Religion of Inexperience" to explain his argument against subsidy.

The article looks at the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2012 decision to uphold the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, focusing on the impact on poor Americans. Topics include the changes to the Medicaid health programme, states' concerns that the law is unfairly coercive, subsidies available from the federal government for the uninsured to buy insurance on newly-created health exchanges.

The article reports that proposal to realign the Lifeline service program for providing low-cost broadband service given by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is facing objections state and local government officials of the U.S. Topics discussed include forceful adoption of broadband service by lower-income families; FCC that proposed to continue offering the service monthly with subsidy; and joining of telecommunication firm CenturyLink in ConnectHome initiative for poor people.

The article discusses the proposal by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to subsidize broadband service to enable low income group people to purchase the service. Comments of Maria del Carmen Arroyo Democratic member of the New York City Council, Internet Innovation Alliance, a broadband advocacy group and Civil rights group Asian Americans Advancing Justice are presented.

The article reports on the confusion created by the nationwide switch from analog television signals to digital television signals on June 12, 2009 in the U.S. It mentions that millions of people across the U.S. are expected to be left without working televisions during the coming weekend inspite of converter-box subsidies from the federal government, and community outreach by local activists. The effect of the switch on older people, the disabled, and low-income families is discussed.

Judged by their rhetoric, rich countries are falling over themselves to help the world's poorest. The current multilateral round of trade negotiations is called the Doha Development Round, because it is meant specifically to help poor countries. France's to-do list includes a moratorium on subsidies on exports to Africa, trade concessions and new efforts to stabilise commodity prices. George Bush, who in 2002 proposed a 50% increase in America's aid budget over three years, this year offered to triple spending to combat AIDS in Africa. Promises aside, which rich countries actually have policies that help the poor? The traditional gauge of a country's commitment to development is foreign aid. Total aid flows rose in 2002, by 4.8% after inflation. America is the biggest donor in absolute terms, but the stingiest relative to the size of its economy, spending only 0.12% of its GDP. A new index drawn up by the Centre for Global Development (CGD), a Washington think-tank, with Foreign Policy magazine, attempts to rank 21 rich countries by averaging their scores in six development-related policies: aid, trade, the environment, migration, investment and peacekeeping. America scores well on trade but badly on everything else, and so is ranked second-bottom, above only Japan.

The author comments on the proposal by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to ax the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. Topics covered include the significance of the fund on communities that rely on the federal subsidies for needed economic opportunities, the role of the fund in generating economic growth in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities, and a call for federal lawmakers to fully fund the CDFI Fund.