WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US poverty rate rose to 14.3 per cent in 2009 from 13.2 per cent the year before, bringing the percentage of the population living in poverty to the highest level since 1994, as the economic downturn took its toll on jobs, the government said yesterday.
The Census Bureau said 43.6 million people, or one in seven Americans, lived in poverty last year, up from 39.8 million in 2008. The data paints a picture of rising hardship and declining incomes for many living in the United States and hands more bad economic news to Democrats ahead of November 2 congressional elections.
“Our economy plunged into recession almost three years ago on the heels of a financial meltdown and a rapid decline in housing prices,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.
“Last year we saw the depths of the recession, including historic losses in employment not witnessed since the Great Depression,” Obama said. His economic recovery package enacted last year, he said, had helped keep millions from falling into poverty in 2009.
The poverty threshold for a family of four in 2009 was $21,954, the report said. The Census report relies on cash income and government payments, including unemployment insurance, to measure poverty.
But the data omits other government assistance, such as food stamps and low-income tax credits, that were increased in last year’s economic package.
Republicans pounced on the report, saying it showed that the government aid enacted by Obama and his congressional Democrats was not working.
“What poor Americans, like all other Americans, need are jobs, not more government benefits,” said Republican Representative John Linder.
The worst recession in decades began in December 2007 while Republican George W. Bush was president and the recovery has been slow to take hold.
While poverty levels rose, the number of people without health insurance jumped to 50.7 million in 2009 from 46.3 million a year earlier, leaving 16.7 percent of the population without health coverage, the Census Bureau said in its annual report on income, poverty and health coverage.
