Eve Fairbanks: My goat is fine, Mr. Samuelson

What if Hispanic immigration were the only thing worsening our poverty crisis — the inequality presidential candidate John Edwards speaks of when he talks about “Two Americas”? What would liberals think of immigration then?

The Washington Post’s Bob Samuelson thought he had lit upon this delightful dilemma last week in a column titled “Importing Poverty.” Disaggregating recent data on poverty, he discovered that the entire increase in poor Americans from 1990 to today could be statistically accounted for by Hispanic immigrants.