According to the latest Census Bureau data released just this week, since the last economic recession in 2001, 4.4 million more people have been added to the poverty rolls. More than one and a half million of them have been children.
After six years of supposed economic recovery after the 2001 recession, 12.5 percent of Americans remain in poverty, with 18 percent of children living below the federal poverty level.
Between 2006 and 2007 alone, according to the just released data, poverty grew by over 800,000 people, including one-half million children, from a rate of 12.3 percent to 12.5 percent. That is more than one full percentage point higher than in 2000.
While there was some good news in the Census Bureau's new report, i.e., a slight rise in median incomes, analysis from the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says, "Given the weakening job market last year, the median income of working-age households (those headed by someone less than 65) rose insignificantly in 2007, and was $2,010 below its 2000 level. "
In other words, middle-income working families are worse off then before the Bush administration came to power and many millions slipped into poverty since. And because the new Census Bureau data does not reflect the impact of the loss of almost a half a million jobs so far in 2008, economic data in the future can be expected to reflect a sharp turn for the worse.
According to Jared Bernstein, who heads EPI, "The Census figures show that the economic cycle that began in 2000 and ended late last year was one of the weakest on record for working families, despite strong overall economic growth during the same period."
Economic recession and increased poverty come even as worker productivity grew by 2.5 percent per year in the 2000s, over 2.0 percent during the 1990s. In other words, workers are working harder and realizing less in return overall.
Bernstein pointed to the loss of union rights in the workplace as the main reason workers have been unable to realize a greater income or benefit return on their hard work. "As long as most workers lack the bargaining power to claim their share of the growth they have helped to generate," he wrote, "that potential will not be realized."
The labor movement, led by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations, says that enacting fair labor legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act and the reinvigoration of worker protections in the workplace as the first steps to improving the standard of living of all working families.
In its response to the implications of the new Census Bureau data, the Coalition on Human Needs called for a change in tax policies that favor the wealthy and for direct aid to lower-income families to provide immediate relief.
Deborah Weinstein, the executive director of CHN, said in a press statement, Aug. 26th, "Helping the poor and near poor through the new economic downturn is essential to rebuilding our economy. Congress should immediately enact an economic recovery package that includes food and heating aid. Tax legislation should include an expansion of the Child Tax Credit so that it is available to more poor families."
The US Census Bureau report came just a day before new media reports indicating the World Bank revised its own estimates of global poverty. According to the BBC, Aug. 27th, "[The World Bank] has revised its previous estimate and now says that 1.4 billion people live in poverty, based on a new poverty line of $1.25 per day."
The lesson learned is that the right-wing tax, trade, and other economic policies that disproportionately favor huge corporations and the very wealthy implemented under the Bush-Cheney administration have had an enormous negative impact on working families.
And while John McCain offers the same economic policies as the Bush administration, perhaps because he self-admittedly doesn't "understand economics," Barack Obama has pledged to provide direct tax relief to working families, investment in new job growth, and a new economic stimulus package.
