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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chartseer who wrote (91114)	9/16/2010 9:46:35 AM
From: Sedohr Nod	Respond to of 224710

It's frightening numbers to anyone that is not trying to spin their way to prosperity.

To: chartseer who wrote (91114)	9/16/2010 11:33:21 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224710

Census Bureau reports new spike in poverty Les Christie, staff writer, On Thursday September 16, 2010, 11:19 am The nation's poverty rate jumped to 14.3% in 2009, its highest level since 1994, and the 43.6 million Americans in need is the highest number in 51 years of record-keeping, the government said Thursday. The Office of Management and Budget defined the poverty threshold level as less than $21,954 for a family of four in 2009. The poverty rate increased for all racial groups except Asians. The jump, reported as part of a regular annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and health insurance, was not unexpected. The U.S. economy went through a very rough 2009. Many Americans lost their jobs. The unemployment rate jumped from 7.7% at the beginning of the year to 10.1% by October, before inching down to 10% the rest of the year. Poverty increased less than many experts were projecting beforehand. David Johnson, chief of the bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, said that the rate would have been higher except that it declined substantially for elderly Americans, falling to 8.9% from 9.7%. He also said increases in employment benefits brought many people out of poverty. The income used to calculate poverty status includes earnings, workman's compensation, unemployment insurance, Social Security, veteran's payments, pensions, interest and dividends, and just about every other source of cash. It does not, however, include capital gains, so, theoretically, millionaires could qualify as poor if they lived solely by selling off investments. Non-cash benefits, such as food stamps or subsidized rents, also do not count as income. Regionally, the South was the poorest area of the country, with a rate of 15.7%. It also experienced the biggest jump in poverty, 1.4 percentage points from 14.3% in 2008. The West had a poverty rate of 14.8%, the Midwest rate was 13.3% and the Northeast rate was 12.2%. Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation with an average of 20.6% of the population earning less than the threshold rate over the past two years. Arizona, at 19.6%, and New Mexico, at 19.3%, also recorded much higher poverty than the national average. New Hampshire, at 7.3%, had the lowest percentage of poor residents with Connecticut, at 8.3%, and Utah, at 8.6%, also scoring well. The government also said the number of Americans with health coverage dropped for the first time since record-keeping began in 1987. (more on Census health care data)