{"id":1015,"date":"2003-12-29T13:19:07","date_gmt":"2003-12-29T18:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1015.html"},"modified":"2003-12-29T13:19:07","modified_gmt":"2003-12-29T18:19:07","slug":"poverty-up-incomes-down-under-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/poverty-up-incomes-down-under-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"Poverty up, incomes down under Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

I noticed, via Hesiod<\/a>, a disturbing story about U.S. incomes and poverty rates going in the wrong direction under Bush’s leadership. It’s not a pretty picture.<\/p>\n

In fact, as the LA Times’ Peter Gosselin noted<\/a> late last week, everything’s going in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

The annual income of middle-class Americans fell by almost $500 last year and the number of people in poverty rose by 1.7 million, the Census Bureau reported Friday, showing the lingering effects of the country’s long economic downturn and suggesting the political trouble that may lie ahead for President Bush. <\/p>\n

The Census data marked the second consecutive year of such discouraging trends after nearly a decade of continuous improvement. The rise in those classified as living in poverty suggested that the damage of the 2001 recession was finally beginning to reach low-income groups, which had been surprisingly resistant to its ill effects.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Mindful of the approaching presidential season, Census officials offered 15 different ways to measure income and 10 to gauge poverty — one apparently for almost any political taste. But virtually all the measures pointed in the same direction — down in the case of income and up in the case of poverty.<\/i> <\/p>\n

Specifically, since Bush took office, 3 million more people are in poverty, while the median U.S. income ($42,409) is 3.3 percent lower. As Wesley Clark put it, “With a record like this, [Bush] shouldn’t be running for president, he should be running for the hills.”
\n
\nOf course, the administration’s spin doctors try valiantly to make the numbers sound less awful. White House spokeswoman Clare Buchan told the Times, “The poverty rate reflects the economic slowdown and the unemployment situation. The president has a vigorous agenda aimed at helping everyone achieve the American Dream and participate in an ownership society.”<\/p>\n

Poor Clare. One has to wonder if even she believes this spin, better yet thinking any of us will. These discouraging numbers about poverty and income reflect the “economic slowdown and the unemployment situation”? Well, of course they do! The problem is Bush promised the opposite would happen if Congress passed his economic plan. Congress played along but all of Bush’s predictions and guarantees have failed to come to fruition. Despite the president’s promises, we still have, as his own spokeswoman put it, an “economic slowdown” and an unemployment “situation.”<\/p>\n

And Bush has a “vigorous agenda” to fix our economic doldrums? Yeah, it’s called tax cuts for millionaires, he’s tried it three times, and the poverty rate is still increasing while the median income is still decreasing. Anything else in Bush’s bag of tricks?<\/p>\n

The article included a terrific graph (I don’t know how to include graphics on my site!) showing the poverty rate and median household income every year since 1992. The results are certainly interesting. While Bill Clinton was president, the poverty rate fell every year. With Bush as president, the same rate has increased every year. While Clinton was president, household income rose every year. With Bush as president, income levels have dropped every year.<\/p>\n

I miss Bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed, via Hesiod, a disturbing story about U.S. incomes and poverty rates going in the wrong direction under Bush’s leadership. It’s not a pretty picture. In fact, as the LA Times’ Peter Gosselin noted late last week, everything’s going in the wrong direction. The annual income of middle-class Americans fell by almost $500 last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}