Another Post about Economics.........

Here is another proof of Bush's economic policies just aren't working. One negative results of his policies is to increase the gap between rich and poor (i.e. the 2001 tax cut).

This is from today's Globe and Mail, and a very similar article appears on the New York Times as well from the Associated Press, and I am using the line from the CPC latest TV ads:

How many years have Bush been in power? Almost 5 years, since 2001. And the last decline of poverty rate? 2000 - five years ago. Is this a coincident? I don't think so.

Here is what puzzles me. The bedrock support of the Bush administration is from the poorer states (especially in the south and in the mid-West), where they suffer the most from Bush's economic policies. The Northeast and the Westcoast are Democrat's heartland, and they are the richer states - where they benefit the most from Bush's policies (generally speaking).

Or is it no longer about the economy anymore? (Quoting from Bill Clinton: "It is the economy, stupid!!")

Again, expect Krugman to give his rant on this issue before the end of this week.
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U.S. poverty rate rises for fourth year

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Updated at 11:29 AM EDT

Washington

Associated Press — The U.S. poverty rate rose to 12.7 per cent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The percentage of people without health insurance did not change.

Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.

Asians were the only ethnic group to show a decline in poverty — from 11.8 per cent in 2003 to 9.8 per cent last year. The poverty rate among the elderly declined as well, from 10.2 per cent in 2003 to 9.8 per cent last year.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold — 11.3 per cent of the population.

The number of people without health insurance grew from 45 million to 45.8 million. At the same time, the number of people with health insurance coverage grew by 2 million last year.

Charles Nelson, an assistant division chief at the Census Bureau, said the percentage of uninsured remained steady because of an “increase in government coverage, notably Medicaid and the state children's health insurance program, that offset a decline in employment-based coverage.”

The median household income, meanwhile, stood at $44,389 (U.S.), unchanged from 2003. Among racial and ethnic groups blacks had the lowest median income and Asians the highest. Median income refers to the point at which half of households earn more and half earn less.

Regionally, income declined only in the Midwest, down 2.8 per cent to $44,657. The South was the poorest region and the Northeast and the West had the highest median incomes.

The increase in poverty came despite strong economic growth, which helped create 2.2 million jobs last year.

“I guess what happened last year was kind of similar to what happened in the early 1990s where you had a recession that was officially over and then you had several years after that of rising poverty,” Mr. Nelson said. “... These numbers do reflect changes between 2003 and 2004. They don't reflect any improvements in the economy in 2005.”

Sheldon Danziger, co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, said the poverty number is still much better than the 80s and early 90s.

“The good news is that poverty is a lot lower than it was in 1993, but we went through a hell of an economic boom,” Mr. Danziger said. “Nobody is predicting we're going to go through another economic boom like that.”

The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four with two children was considered living in poverty if income was $19,157 or less. For a family of two with no children, it was $12,649. For a person 65 and over living alone, it was 9,060.

The estimates on poverty, uninsured and income are based on supplements to the bureau's Current Population Survey, and are conducted over three months, beginning in February, at about 100,000 households nationwide.

The only city with a million or more residents that exhibited a significant change in poverty level last year was New York City, which saw the rate increase from 19 percent to 20.3 percent.

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