The government started keeping poverty statistics in 1959. More individuals fell below the poverty line last year than ever within the time since. A Census Bureau report said that 43 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009. After rising to 13.2 percent in 2008, it leaped further to 14.3 % last year. The poverty report is the latest in a long line of recent bad economic news Republicans are crowing about as the November election approaches. A closer look at the poverty rate over the last decade shows the GOP is complicit in causing the spike. Liberals say the poverty rate underestimates the true level of economic misery. Rightists say the low income threshold leads to an overestimation of the amount of financially poor people in America. In response, government officials plan to use more detailed analysis for figuring out the true percentage of United States of America impoverished starting in 2011.
Analysts had expected a much greater increase
A low income level increase was no surprise. Analysts were predicting the low income rate would go up to 15 percent. As outlined by a Census Bureau official interviewed by CNN, a decline in elderly citizens falling below the low income threshold from 9.7 to 8.9 percent kept the low income rate from ticking higher. The amount of money necessary to maintain a minimum of material comfort is considered the low income threshold. Considering that standard, the poverty threshold seems overly optimistic. To be living in poverty, a family of four makes a maximum annual income of about $22,000, as outlined by the Census Bureau.
Looking to determine poverty
About a half century ago government officials attempted to determine the income considered at the poverty level by using the least amount necessary to buy groceries. MSNBC reports that experts say current methods of calculating the number of Americans living in poverty fails to consider significant factors beyond income. In an interview with MSNBC, Shawn Fremstad of the Center for Economic and Policy Research said the poverty threshold in 2010 doesn’t come close to what a family requires to survive in modern-day America. Starting in 2011, the government plans to formulate additional metrics incorporating factors like tax credits and work expenditures to determine low income thresholds. Fremstad said using median income as a baseline may be a better way. Looking at the main difference between median income and that of the poor could bring the problem in to better focus. Last year, median income for U.S. families was $49,777.
Politicians use the poor to discredit opponents
Political pundits are saying the poverty rate is one more liability for the Obama administration and Democrats for the November midterm elections . Yet poverty did not fall through the Bush era economic expansion within the 2000s. A Washington Independent article said that a Commerce Department official told Congress last year that after rising during the economic recession of 2001, the low income result failed to recede. The economy grew until 2007. Yet low income grew along with it, at a level of .08 percent. A higher percentage of Americans were poor at the end of the expansion than at the beginning. The poverty increases throughout the good recession came on top of numbers already elevated by eight years of GOP economic policies.
CNN
cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/20/meyer.sullivan.census.poverty/index.html
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/39211644/ns/us_news-life/
Fox News
politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/09/15/rnc-supports-odonnell-delaware-nrsc-changes-tune
Washington Independent
washingtonindependent.com/97318/poverty-in-the-recession
