Stop the presses! It's official! Bush policies create more poverty!

buttmunch · August 30th, 2006, 05:58 AM

Quote:

New numbers from the Census Bureau show what a disaster the economic policies of the Bush administration have been for middle-class, working-class and poor Americans.
When President Bush took office, 33 million Americans, or 11.7% of the population, were counted as living below the poverty line. By last year, the ranks of the poor had swollen to 37 million and the national poverty rate was stuck at 12.6%. Here in New York City, almost one in five struggles to get by on $20,000 - or less - for a family of four.

When Bush took office, 41 million Americans were without health coverage. Today, the count of the uninsured stands at 47 million. When Bush took office, the median income for men working full time, year-round was $42,209. As of 2005, that typical salary, when adjusted for inflation, had shrunk to $41,386. Although the real median household income crept up 1.1% - the first such uptick since 1999 - the wages of full-time, year-round workers continued their southward slide, down 1.8% for men and 1.3% for women.

These are the anemic results you'd expect to see in more difficult times. But the economy is cooking, with steady growth, moderate inflation, low unemployment and strong corporate profits. The rising tide should be lifting all boats. Instead, it's working only for the yachts.

Many forces are eating at the paychecks of American workers, including global competition, rising health care costs and the declining clout of organized labor. Some factors are beyond the control of any presidential administration, but the White House and Congress do have an obligation to, at the very least, ease the blows.

Bush and Capitol Hill Republicans have focused instead on plumping the pillows of the well-off. Witness five years of tax cuts for those at the top. Witness the refusal to raise the minimum wage, whose purchasing power is at a half-century low. Witness the fact that the top 1% of earners pull in a larger share of income than they have in decades.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently acknowledged, "many Americans simply aren't feeling the benefits" of a strong economy, but there's little sign of a course correction from the White House. Democrats are seizing on the issue as they angle to take control of the House and Senate in the fall elections. We hope they make the most of it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-376930c.html

**Mr. Authority** · August 30th, 2006, 05:41 PM

Sadly I'm not suprised. When a country focuses more on war than on domestic issues, then the public is the one that is affected the most. It does'nt help that the rich in this country are getting richer off of this asshole administration. Fiscal conservatism at it's worse.