Despite being the riches nation on Earth, we have a terrible record of sharing that wealth amongst all Americans. The income and asset gap between the classes is at it's highest since the Great Depression and besides a minimum wage increase passed by the new Democratic Congress last year, not much is helping to stop the problem and the Census bureau confirms it.
From USA Today:
WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the number of people lacking insurance dropped by more than 1 million.The agency also reported that median income for U.S. households grew 1.3% in 2007, to $50,233, and poverty remained unchanged, at 12.5% from 12.3% of the population in 2007. .
It was the third straight year that household income has risen. The numbers are adjusted for inflation.
The poverty statistic meant that there were 37.3 million people living in poverty in 2007.
Well there's some good news in there at least. More people being covered by insurance is great to hear. Now I wonder why that is, are there more people making significantly more money to pay for rising private health plans?
Nope:
Census officials said last year's decline reflects a jump in the number of people with government-sponsored insurance, such as Medicaid and Medicare.
The percentage of uninsured children, which rose in 2006, fell last year. Across the USA, 11% of children under 18 were without insurance coverage last year, down from 11.7% in 2006. The percentage of children covered by government programs rose to 31% from 29.8%.
The increase in enrollment in government programs "is the main reason for the fall in uninsured rates for children and for the fall in uninsurance rates in the overall population," said David Johnson, chief of the U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division.
Those programs are the same "big government" ideas that President Bush has fought against. He'd rather have that big government in Iraq, where it helps
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