Response to Web Memo published by the Heritage Foundation, dated November 23 2005, authored by Tim Kane.

The Heritage Foundation's Tim Kane suggests in a recently published memo,
Is Iraq a poor man's war?', that the National Priorities Project (NPP)
used flawed reasoning' in its analysis of military recruitment data.
Dr. Kane contests NPP's finding that military recruiters enlist lower
and middle income youth,' and suggests that we have based this finding
on an analysis of the top 20 counties with the highest recruitment
rates. However, this is not the case. The finding of low and middle
income neighborhoods as recruitment grounds came from an analysis of
all the data that NPP obtained from the armed forces.

Both NPP's analysis and Dr. Kane's report indicate that zip code areas with median household incomes of $25,000 - $54,999 are over-represented.
Moreover, zip code areas with incomes $55,000 or more are
under-represented as are areas under $25,000. In the case of the Army,
NPP also showed that zip code areas with income levels of $20,000 to $25,000 are proportionately represented.

In short, NPP and the Heritage Foundation agree on the numbers. The
crux of the dispute is what the numbers mean. The implication of Dr.
Kane' report is that the income range of $25,000 - $54,999 does not
constitute low and middle income. However, the federal government uses
various definitions of 'low income' when creating eligibility criteria
for particular federal programs. The range may include families with
income levels up to 200% of the poverty level or $34,058 for a family
of four.*

Recruits from zip code areas with median household income levels of
$25,000 - $34,999 are over-represented in the armed forces. NPP stands
by its conclusion that youth from low and middle income areas are being
heavily recruited.

*Both Dr. Kane and NPP used Census Demographic
estimates in the analyses, making the 1999 poverty threshold the
appropriate comparable.