Earlier this year, the Bush administration announced that it no longer saw any reason for the [tag]Census[/tag] Bureau to keep producing its annual report on poverty and income. It may be the only government survey that researchers how income changes affect their poverty status, health coverage, and use of government services, but the Bush gang decided policy work could be done just as well without it.
Fortunately, the report survived administration opposition and was released today. Given the results, it’s not hard to understand why Bush wanted to keep the results hidden.
* In 2005, 46.6 million people were without [tag]health insurance[/tag] coverage, up from 45.3 million people in 2004.
* The percentage of people without health insurance coverage increased from 15.6 percent in 2004 to 15.9 percent in 2005.
* The median earnings of men declined 1.8 percent to $41,386. The median [tag]earnings[/tag] of women declined 1.3 percent to $31,858.
* In 2005, 37.0 million people were in [tag]poverty[/tag], not statistically different from 2004.
I’d only add that the report also explained that the top 20% of income earners saw their real median household earnings increase 1.2% — while everyone else saw their median earnings drop.
As for the statistically unchanged poverty rate, which was the only modicum of decent news, this is the first time since Bush took office that the poverty rate did not go up. That’s the good news. The bad news is 37 million people in poverty is 12.6% of the population — and we’re still looking at an economy that has as many people living in poverty as there have been since the government started keeping track.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the timing of the report’s release.
For years, including the first three years of Bush’s first term, the Census Bureau released its poverty data in late-September. In election years, that meant the public learned about the number of families in poverty about five weeks before going to the polls. Starting in 2004, the administration moved the release up to August, when Congress is out of session, DC has crawled to a stop, and a lot of journalists (and regular voters) are on vacation.
Moreover, in 2004, the Census Bureau also changed the location of the poverty report’s release. Instead of using the traditional National Press Club in downtown DC, where the numbers have been released in years past, officials moved the release to a harder-to-reach office in Suitland, Md.
And just to further raise eyebrows, the poverty numbers used to be released by a career Census official. In 2004, that changed, too — the report was released by the bureau’s director, a political appointee of the Bush White House.
To be fair, maybe these changes were innocuous and had nothing to do with softening the report’s blow. But it’s not as if the administration has earned the benefit of the doubt.