WASHINGTON - The number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million — up 1.1 million from 2003 — according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure.

The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people.

While disappointed, the Bush administration — which has not seen a decline in poverty numbers since the president took office — said it was not surprised by the new statistics.

"America should be showing true leadership on the great moral issues of our time — like poverty — instead of allowing these situations to get worse," said John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate. He has started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Overall, the nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year. Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold. Since then, the number of people in poverty has increased steadily from 32.9 million in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, to 35.8 million in 2003.

The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four was considered living in poverty last year if annual income was $19,307 or less. For a family of two, it was $12,334.

The increase in poverty came despite strong economic growth, which helped create 2.2 million jobs last year — the best showing for the labor market since 1999. By contrast, there was only a tiny increase of 94,000 jobs in 2003 and job losses in both 2002 and 2001.

Asians were the only ethnic group to show a decline in poverty — from 11.8 percent in 2003 to 9.8 percent last year. The poverty rate for whites rose from 8.2 percent in 2003 to 8.6 percent last year. There was no noticeable change for blacks and Hispanics.

The median household income, meanwhile, stood at $44,389, 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 percent to $44,657. The South was the poorest region and the Northeast and the West had the highest median incomes.

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

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.

::sigh:: Where are the..."But.....Clinton had......."

Originally posted by Echo2
WASHINGTON - The number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million — up 1.1 million from 2003 — according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure.

And GWBush has been in office for four full years.

Woooooooow.........

.......what an odd coincidence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

G'wan, poor people..........imbeciles......idiots.......retard ates of every stripe..........and, of course, ALL those who are DEEPLY concerned about the level of (purported) "mooooooooooorality" our gummint leaders possess.

Keep voting for the Republicans. Keep returning the Conserva-Fascists to office.

I'll keep watching you work two jobs to make ends meet, with no healthcare, keep watching you bang the goddamned drums of war, while the children of millions of working poor in this country go to bed hungry at night.

Keep on waving your flags and screeching ---- "Hooooooooooooraaaaaay fer Gee Dubbya!!!!!..."Hooooraaaay fer war!!!"..."Gawd bless Amuuuurica!!!".........you pathetic dupes.

Originally posted by Freethinker
G'wan, poor people..........imbeciles......idiots.......retard ates of every stripe..........and, of course, ALL those who are DEEPLY concerned about the level of (purported) "mooooooooooorality" our gummint leaders possess.

Keep voting for the Republicans. Keep returning the Conserva-Fascists to office.

I'll keep watching you work two jobs to make ends meet, with no healthcare, keep watching you bang the goddamned drums of war, while the children of millions of working poor in this country go to bed hungry at night.

Keep on waving your flags and screeching ---- "Hooooooooooooraaaaaay fer Gee Dubbya!!!!!..."Hooooraaaay fer war!!!"..."Gawd bless Amuuuurica!!!".........you pathetic dupes.

All of your BS would actually mean something if you actually STOOD for something, which you don't....

Originally posted by Decka
All of your BS would actually mean something if you actually STOOD for something, which you don't....

You seem to be fixated on people "standing for" something.

Did it ever occur to you that blindly dedicating yourself to some irrational ideal might NOT be the best thing for the world?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Echo, I blame all the self-serving politicians that have been in office that led up to the present situation of America.
Not one particular person.

Hundreds of judges, senators, and representatives could have done so much more than a few presidents could ever accomplish.
Personal agenda, party ties, and greed seems to have overcome the need to support that which is correct action.

To blame one person is to blame the system itself, this blame says that we have a political system that would enable one-lone person to run all factions of our country, and make all its decisions.

Originally posted by Freethinker

Did it ever occur to you that blindly dedicating yourself to some irrational ideal might NOT be the best thing for the world?


well, with all your arrogance and insults... you'd think you'd have a better plan, but you don't. you just say what's wrong, you don't say how to improve it.

Yea, the 'poverty" is still the highest on Earth sans the average for citizens in luxembourg.

Calling it poverty is a gross misconception

Originally posted by Freethinker
You seem to be fixated on people "standing for" something.

Did it ever occur to you that blindly dedicating yourself to some irrational ideal might NOT be the best thing for the world?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Hmmm, so...you DON'T stand for anything?
Except apparently being against society and civilization in general based on your taking of John Lennon riffs as gospel truth

Dan I agree with you the problem is in the system as a whole, the funny thing is while poverty is on the rise congress will still get a pay raise ;)

Echo, I blame all the self-serving politicians that have been in office that led up to the present situation of America. Not one particular person. Yup which is why the president should be pressed even harder because if he took the fall for such things the lower politicians might start paying attention.

All the presidents, at least since reagan (I haven't been alive long enough to comment further than that but I have a vague suspicion that it really is all), have been backstabbing scum bags promoting their own agenda. That how the system works and thats who the system promotes. Once scum gets into power it starts to enforce such as the status quo, a requirement if you will.

Our current system places all the empahsis on loyalties, rather than actions. So long as that path is promoted we're all doomed. The whole of America suffering at the hands of a Good ol Boy network.

the funny thing is while poverty is on the rise congress will still get a pay raise Those assholes have rigged it so they don't even have to vote on it, only object if they choose.

Originally posted by Decka
you just say what's wrong, you don't say how to improve it.

I have a multitude of ideas for making positive, progressive change to the US system.

My prescription for improving it would be to change the country from its current system of corporatist [IOW, another way of saying 'fascist'] oligarchy, and institute a system (one that is the antithesis of corporate olgarchy, BTW) of democratic socialism.

______________________________

The far-Right Conservative agenda is diametrically opposed to the precepts on which all traditional value systems of the world have been based. These traditional value systems say that we should not steal or murder, and that we should make sure that everyone has the necessary means for a decent life. But the Rightwing's agenda for global domination and control of petroleum resources, ignoring all principles of morality and international law, is carried out in the name of the greed of the “haves” of the world to have still more, even if it means killing hundreds of thousands of people and letting millions more die every year of starvation and poverty-related diseases.

Originally posted by 500lbguerilla
Those assholes have rigged it so they don't even have to vote on it, only object if they choose.

Another thing that sucks is if they get fired they still get their paycheck it's a no lose system for them, but for us it's just the opposite. Just like these damn fuel prices getting out of control they don't give a sh** because we pay for their transportation.

Originally posted by mad dog
Another thing that sucks is if they get fired they still get their paycheck it's a no lose system for them, but for us it's just the opposite. Just like these damn fuel prices getting out of control they don't give a sh** because we pay for their transportation.
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A lot of things are out of control, and speaking of out of control.
Have you noticed how the situation in the Gulf states is being handled?

This should awaken people as to how the billions of dollars on the National Security Thingy has been wasted.
We are no more prepared to face the aftermath of a wide-spread terrorist attack than we were 20 years ago.