Dang, with news like this, we’d better order up a new round of tax cuts for the rich… you know, to give a boost to the economy, right?…
WASHINGTON – The nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.
So, obviously, the most pressing economic issues for this administration should be bankruptcy reform and repealing the estate tax, right?…
The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold — 11.3 percent of the population.
Who was president then? Oh, nevermind; 9/11 changed everything.
The median household income, meanwhile, stood at $44,389, unchanged from 2003.
Well, at least things aren’t getting any worse for the middle-class. Oh, wait, back in 2003, gas cost $1.56/gallon… let’s see, if the average family is spending $1,000 more for gas this year than two years ago, then it’s as if their income dropped 2¼%.
The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four with two children was considered living in poverty if income was $19,157 or less. For a family of two with no children, it was $12,649. For a person 65 and over living alone, it was 9,060.
Or that poor family of four could just pool their yearly income and pay Donald Trump to deliver them a 69-second lecture on how to succeed in real estate.
