More children living in poverty now than during recession

[riversedge]

Source: usatoday.com


Jennifer Calfas, USA TODAY 12:05 a.m. EDT July 21, 2015

A higher percentage of children live in poverty now than did during the Great Recession, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Tuesday.

About 22% of children in the U.S. lived below the poverty line in 2013, compared with 18% in 2008, the foundation's 2015 Kids Count Data Book reported. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Human and Health Service's official poverty line was $23,624 for a family with two adults and two children.

“The fact that it’s happening is disturbing on lots of levels,” said Laura Speer, the associate director for policy reform and advocacy at the Casey Foundation, a non-profit based in Baltimore. “Those kids often don’t have the access to the things they need to thrive.” The foundation says its mission is to help low-income children in the U.S. by providing grants and advocating for policies that promote economic opportunity.

The report examined data from several federal agencies ranging from 2008 to 2013 to assess state-by-state trends of 16 factors of children's well-being, including economics, education, health and family and community. It found that one in four children — a total of 18.7 million kids — lived in low-income households in 2013; low-income families were defined as those who use more than 30% of their pre-tax income for housing...............

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/20/more-children-living-poverty-now-than-during-recession/30415391/

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[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. This is a national disgrace.

And any person who votes politicians into office who keep trying to kill off parts of the social safety net should be hiding their faces from the public.

[24601]

2. Our kids are in college. I've told them that there isn't any generational war going on since

it's already over and they lost.

Their generation will be transferring their earnings to my generation most of their lives.

Why, they ask?

Because seniors vote.

[jwirr]

11. And you should tell your children that a lot of us seniors have grandchildren and great gandchildren

We vote for them.

[Skittles]

16. thank you

not all seniors are selfish

[McKim]

3. This is The Biggest News on DU Today

This is very very important. This is the measure of our "civilization". There truly is always money for war while our people go hungry.
This is something to talk about and to spread everywhere.

[riderinthestorm]

4. I'm deeply troubled by the national malaise when it comes to our children

We couldn't even get sensible gun control passed after Sandy Hook! If the massacre at that school couldn't budge lawmakers to take action, then it appears the bar's set to a new low.

Climate change? Pfft. Not important enough to warrant immediate drastic action for our children.

And now we have record numbers of children in poverty and there's a national yawn (no not here but there's no public outcry).

It feels like we're regressing on our attitudes towards children - next will be a relaxation of child labor laws?

This is such terrible news.

[jwirr]

5. This one I blame totally of the Rs. Obstruction.

[jtuck004]

8. That woud be nice. But read Stress Test by Timothy "Killer" Geithner and you will

find out that the reason so many are there is because to bring them out would dilute the value of the wealth at the top, so they don't want to do that.

Better to leave the families there so we can call this a recovery - he says - because we needed to save it - to save them would have hurt us.

Then you can watch here:

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/z9b8f1/timothy-geithner-extended-interview

while he tries to spin it otherwise and an audience laughs at his face.

It was this administration's plan to support the bank$ter/donors to the party, and they transferred hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth to them, so much so that they have reported the best profits in years.

To accomplish this while keeping th edeficit low they let millions of families be thrown in the street in foreclosure, millions more lose their jobs and never recover, and tens of millions to move permanently into or nearer poverty - and we know with near certainty that means also their children and their children's kids will never be able to escape it, despite the lies we tell people so they will think this is a greater country than it is.

Is it also Repub obstructionism? Sure. But any honest person who reads what has been published knows that when the Democrats are chortling about keeping the deficit low, they are also keeping job opportunities away from people in black communities where they have 35% unemployment - because for many the only color-blind job that they could get was with the Federal government, and you can't keep a deficit low (like a Republican wants) and still provide jobs.

Which is why inequality has soared the past years - and why Bernie is running. Else we could just continue the same policies.

[jwirr]

10. Wow. I had not read that before. These years look more and more like 3rd Way cooperation with

the corporations and bankers.

Not only did they leave us where we are but then they traded cuts in welfare when the Rs shut down the government. All on the backs of the poor. I have suggested that those of us on the bottom were in a Depression - not a Recession - and that is exactly where they left us.

[Turbineguy]

6. Republican policies

are a success!

[NickB79]

7. So glad I live in Minnesota

In the state-by-state analysis in the report, Minnesota took the top spot for overall child well-being — the first non-New England state to do so in over a decade. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa and Vermont, came in second through fifth.

Several statewide policies and initiatives in Minnesota help increase the likelihood of children's well-being in Minnesota. MinnesotaCare, established before the Affordable Care Act, provides publicly subsidized health care to low-income individuals in the state. The state also has an initiative to increase economic security for families, addressing minimum wage, tax credit for low-income families and childcare assistance programs.

We enacted a host of new social programs in the past few years that our Republican contingent swore would drive our state into the gutter. How wrong they were.

[canoeist52]

9. And thats why we need to give tax breaks to corporations who offer employee profit-sharing.

Surely this will fix our child poverty problem.

[closeupready]

14. I know, right? I was thinking about that earlier today.

How bold THAT proposal was. Ever the courageous leader!

[Scalded Nun]

12. And this is exactly what the Right is looking for

These kids are not getting what they need to thrive, but their thriving is not in the plan. The Right and their overlords want to breed that servant class.

This is all going to plan.

By the time this collective country wakes up it may very well be too late to correct course.

The Right is evil.

[AngryOldDem]

13. This puts the damnable lie to the "improving economy" bullshit.

More people may be working, but they aren't being paid a wage that supports their families. So really, the employment numbers are meaningless. A slave culture could boast full employment -- employment figures should also take into account the wages being paid for said employment.

The whole point of having a job and earning an income is self-sufficiency. I wish people would see beyond their rose-colored glasses that many people, although "working," cannot do that on what they're bringing home in their paychecks.

[Sunlei]

15. at least 3 million civilians died in the Great Depression in the US ,mostly young children

Historians estimate at least 3 million civilians died in the Great Depression in the US (1930-1940) mostly young children (from search "how many died in great depression&quot

We need to remove the LOCAL restrictions/regulations preventing people working from home, self employed.

So everyone who wants to work from home can use a personal skill to earn an income. Small business used to be the backbone of America.

[A Little Weird]

17. Kentucky's children fared worse than the national average

1 in 4 were below the poverty line -
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/21/3953264_annual-casey-foundation-report.html?rh=1