Defining "poverty."
Do you have the foggiest notion of how "poverty level" is analyzed and defined? What the algorithms are? Do you know what income is counted, and what isn't? Do you know how the Census Bureau definitions differ from the Health and Human Services definitions?
Are you aware that the Census Bureau poverty thresholds are identical for all geographical locations?
The percentage of people below the poverty rate in the U.S. has been floating between 11 and 15 percent since about 1965. It was 12.6 percent as of 2005 (most recent numbers available), which is lower than it was any time between 1979 and 1999.
It ain't arrogance if you know what the hell you're talking about.