Another scary/depressing edition, unfortunately:
Via Yglesias, no one in Congress mentions this part when talking about “belt-tightening“:
The 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010 was the most for the 52 years that estimates have been published, and the number of people in poverty rose for the fourth consecutive year as the poverty rate climbed to 15.1% — the highest since 1993 — up from 14.3% in 2009.
Meanwhile, real median household income in 2010 was $49,445, down 2.3% from the prior year and below pre-recession levels.
…
While the data released Tuesday paint a grim picture, the results could have been even worse without government benefits such as extended unemployment insurance that were “pretty good at plugging some holes in the safety net and preventing even more people from falling into poverty,” said Harry Holzer, a public-policy professor at Georgetown University.
…
“Looking ahead, poverty seems unlikely to improve because of the way the economy is going,” [Edwin Park, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities] said. “State and local governments are retrenching, cutting spending, which will slow economic growth.”
…
Among children under 18, the poverty rate reached 22% in 2010, compared with 13.7% among those 18 to 64. In 2009, the poverty rate among kids was 20.7%, compared with 12.9% among those 18 to 64.
More than one of every five children lives in poverty in the US, and Republicans say more spending cuts are the answer. Right.