Yes, I know there's poverty in America too
| By gqmartinez - Jun 15th, 2005 at 7:24 pm EDT |
Last week I talked a lot about global poverty and mentioned how debt relief should be part of a solution. Since it looks like debt relief might actually happen now, I figured I'd talk about poverty in the United States and hope something gets done about it.
I'm sure it's not likely to come as a surprise that under Bush's watch more people have gone into poverty. But the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has a nice summary on U.S. poverty data that I'd like to highlight.
- From 2000 to 2003, 4,280,000 people have fallen into poverty of which 1,279,000 are children under 18.
- During this time, 1,126,000 Black Americans have gone into poverty (296,000 under 18).
- 1,304,000 Hispanic Americans have gone into poverty (555,000 under 18).
Another issue is the amount of people who lack health insurance. While 244,000 less children under 18 lacked health insurance by 2003, 5 million more Americans now lack health insurance compared to 2000. But things seem to be getting worse.
For a while, I've been ranting and raving about Medicaid becoming less accessible. (Applauding here.) There are two troubling trajectories: More people in poverty and less state AND federal money for Medicaid. Since people in poverty often rely on Medicaid, well, you get the idea.
The economics of this is a little complicated so I'll just lament that Kerry didn't get a chance to implement his health care idea and hope we all make sure that we don't let the GOP permanently install the estate tax breaks.
I'm sure it's not likely to come as a surprise that under Bush's watch more people have gone into poverty. But the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has a nice summary on U.S. poverty data that I'd like to highlight.
- From 2000 to 2003, 4,280,000 people have fallen into poverty of which 1,279,000 are children under 18.
- During this time, 1,126,000 Black Americans have gone into poverty (296,000 under 18).
- 1,304,000 Hispanic Americans have gone into poverty (555,000 under 18).
Another issue is the amount of people who lack health insurance. While 244,000 less children under 18 lacked health insurance by 2003, 5 million more Americans now lack health insurance compared to 2000. But things seem to be getting worse.
For a while, I've been ranting and raving about Medicaid becoming less accessible. (Applauding here.) There are two troubling trajectories: More people in poverty and less state AND federal money for Medicaid. Since people in poverty often rely on Medicaid, well, you get the idea.
The economics of this is a little complicated so I'll just lament that Kerry didn't get a chance to implement his health care idea and hope we all make sure that we don't let the GOP permanently install the estate tax breaks.
!
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