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August 30, 2005
With Poverty Growing Of Course We Should Cut Taxes. Eliminating Estate Taxes Would Help. Wouldn't It? Huh?
U.S. Poverty Rate Rises Despite Growth in 2004
By Joel Havemann and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON -- Although the economic expansion entered its fourth year, Americans' incomes remained stagnant last year, and the poverty rate rose, the Census Bureau reported today.
Median household income — half of all households earned more and half earned less — was $44,389 in 2004, a statistically insignificant $93 less than the 2003 median when adjusted for inflation. Household income has been falling consistently since reaching its all-time peak of $46,058 in 1999. Not since 1997 has it been lower than its 2004 level.
Nearly 37 million of the nation's 290 million people, or 12.7%, lived below the poverty line in 2004. The year before, there were 2.9 million fewer poor people, and the poverty rate was 12.5%.
Not since 1994 have there been so many poor people, and the poverty rate was last this high in 1998.
"This is not good news," said Timothy M. Smeeding, a professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School. "We're four years into a recovery and we're not showing any progress. In fact, quite the opposite."
The Census Bureau also reported that some 45.8 million Americans, or 15.7%, lacked health insurance in 2004, essentially the same rate as the 15.6% in 2003.
The overall uninsured rate remained about the same because government programs such as Medicaid and the state child health insurance program added to their rolls at about the same rate that private insurers lost enrollees. The number of year-round, full-time workers without health insurance increased by 456,000, to a total of 21.1 million people.
Despite the growing availability of insurance plans that offer low monthly premiums — and tax breaks — to people willing to take on responsibility for routine healthcare costs, the proportion of Americans buying their own coverage barely budged. It rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.3%, a changed census officials deemed statistically insignificant.
Posted by Mark at August 30, 2005 09:59 PM
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