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StumbleSUN EDITORIAL:
U.S. poverty rises
But situation could have been worse without economic stimulus bill
Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
The government delivered sobering news Thursday when it reported that the nation’s poverty rate last year was 14.3 percent, the highest since 1994. The Census Bureau figure, which translates to 43.6 million Americans, is not altogether surprising because of the damage the Great Recession has done to our economy. Massive layoffs and home foreclosures have contributed to a shrinking middle class.
But the poverty rate could have been much worse had it not been for the economic stimulus package approved in 2009 by President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led Congress. The Democratic Obama administration inherited a financial and housing crisis that erupted during Republican President George W. Bush’s second term. Obama correctly recognized that the recession, caused by a disdain for financial regulation and by Bush-era policies that favored wealthy special interests, hurt the middle class the most.
As noted by Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, the stimulus legislation helped keep the poverty level from going higher because it provided more than $40 billion in increased unemployment insurance benefits, $37 billion in tax cuts for working families, $13 billion in one-time extra Social Security payments of $250 per recipient, and $12 billion worth of expanded tax credits for lower-income workers. Unemployment benefits alone kept 2.3 million Americans out of poverty last year, Bernstein said.
Bernstein aptly stated that “especially in a tough job market but even in better times, families often need a safety net to catch them when they fall, or when their incomes aren’t high enough to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.”
The Census Bureau reported that the average poverty threshold for a family of four last year was $21,954, which excluded the value of homes and other accumulated wealth. It doesn’t take much for a hardworking family that has had to endure job losses, upside-down mortgages and piles of medical bills to fall into poverty. With Nevada leading the nation in unemployment, chances are good that valley residents have friends, loved ones or former co-workers who have become impoverished, if they haven’t fallen into financial disarray themselves.
These are the times when people come to rely on a government safety net the most. Tens of millions of Americans are thankful that one exists because it gives them a fighting chance to get back on their feet and become productive citizens once again.
Don’t bother telling that to Sharron Angle, the extremist Republican candidate seeking to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat. According to Angle’s myopic view of the world, senators should not lift a hand to help create jobs and they certainly shouldn’t get involved in an extension of unemployment benefits. Angle has said that people who receive unemployment assistance are “spoiled.”
Imagine how much higher the poverty rate would be if Angle and fellow Tea Party favorites ran Congress. That’s something the public should keep in mind when they vote in the November general election.
Discussion: 10 comments so far…
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The Sun
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The LV Sun says "As noted by Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, the stimulus legislation helped keep the poverty level."
Now that it is clear that the stimulus did not "create" jobs, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi have decided that that they need to appeal to vote buying with entitlements.
All the Saved Jobs where salary increase for public Union workers. More payola.
With Unemployment at 9.7% Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are bragging about how many entitlement they are putting out
These people want Jobs - not handouts
"It could have been worse" just doesn't cut it!
It could have been better, too. How do we know?
It surely would have been better if Obama hadn't distributed a trillion dollars worth of corrupt political payoffs. The stimulus bill did nothing! What a waste of our money.
It is hard to find excuses for incompetence..
It is clear the "entitled" class is the rich with their unconscionable tax cuts. They have the money to bust unions and lobby for continual war and rotten schools. The poor apparently are somehow not even "entitled" to subsistance wages.
As if we're living on easy street with untreated disease , unemployment and poverty. I suppose breathing is seen as an entitlement too. Just line us up and kill us .
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mitch McConnell and Newt Gingrich don't give a hoot
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
It's not about the poor, these lowlifes, it's about the rich and big oil
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
They are simply fakes like Angle and BarbieDoll and Lady Poulet
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Remeber Seward, Alaska way back when
"As noted by Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden..."
Sun, Future -- you guys seem to have missed the obvious. Why does this VP rate his own economic advice staff??
It's obvious unless We the People swing that budget ax useless fat like this won't get trimmed.
"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically." -- Henry David Thoreau 1849 "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
I, for one, can't afford much more of the Dems' Hopey Changey crap.
Let the rich just totally impoverish you Vote Republican !
There is equal, if not more, evidence that the stimulus (both Bush and Obama) made things worse. For one, defenders of the stimulus are using the very same formula that announced we'd max at an 8.8 percent unemployment rate - meaning, they're leaving in all the same assumptions about the power of government spending when it clearly was not as potent as they first assumed.
"There is equal, if not more, evidence that the stimulus (both Bush and Obama) made things worse."
Patrick_R -- amen to that!
People just don't seem to get it -- government is neither the source of our prosperity nor power to change. Government regulators often being the problem, leave the People and the marketplace alone and prosperity will happen naturally, just as it always have.
Thoreau is just as relevant now as it was then.
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." -Henry Ford
Yeah right, without Hapless Harry, Barack and the Democrats we would all be eating cat food and sleeping in boxes. This according to the Democrat party operatives that work at the LVSun.
We now know that the economy had hit bottom and turned around even before Obama took office, though unemployment lagged as it always does. Indeed, by March 15, 2009, the Obama Administration reported seeing the "green shoots" of economic recovery. That was before the first dollar of the 'stimulus' had been spent. By June, 2009 the economy recorded positive GDP growth. Again this before any 'stimulus' money had reached the economy.
It appears that when money from the 'stimulus' entered the economy it may have actually choked off what then looked like a normal recovery.
I wonder if Reid and Bama pay The Sun to distort such economic figures?? This is absurd.No one counts saved jobs except liberal socialists who are drowning in ineptness. Cars for clunkers failed. The Stimulus failed. The Dems may have helped the non-productive welfare mentality along but not economic sanity of a balanced budget, less taxes and spending and less debt and deficits. And Obamacare has not even come close to its economic horrors yet; 2014 awaits that loveliness!!!! Time for Dems to be replaced locally,state legislative races, guv races, and federal races. Why? Because in 2012, the House will be redistricted and no one really can trust Dem registrars, legs,and guvs not to cheat as they do in many voting opportunities.
This editorial implies that back in February of 2009 we had but two options: to pass the Democrats' pork laden Stimulus or to do nothing.
This is just plain wrong.
Congress and the Obama administration could have designed a recovery plan that cut high marginal tax rates and spent government money immediately on desperately needed infrastructure repairs. But alas, the last thing Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi wanted was a simple, transparent, and quick stimulus package.
100% democrat propaganda. It all boils down to this, you are either a democrat or an AMERICAN. As a registered democratic AMERICAN since the age of 18 I've never called myself a democrat nor ever felt the need to. I proudly admit to having been an ignorant AMERICAN and can't see why anyone would be so proud as to call oneself a democrat.
The party of democrats would like to have us believe they are at war with Republicans, they are at war with Americans and our Country. They want to take it over and rule our lives. I prefer they rot hell.
This is nothing more than Franklinstein economics. Look at the number of depressions experienced by the US prior to the Roosevelt. They avereged 18 months. Now look at the Great Depression which lasted 10 years. That's right 10 years of high unemployment caused by the New Deal which is what the stimulus, er jobs bill is resulting in. Hold on to your hats, we are in for a bumpy ride with Obamonmics, aka, socialism.
Thanks to Progressive Democrats and Progressive Republicans we now have more people in poverty than in 1964 when the War on poverty started. How quaint. How democratic, but then the Democrats, the party of slavery, since 1820. This is just a new iteration of their main goal, complete government dependence and they will lie cheat and steal to get there.
Government causes poverty and then wants to make institutional. through welfare, food stamps, unemployment payments and now the government wants you to rely on it for medical care. Of course they will have to see if you are worthy of medical care first. Too young and too old need not apply. Dependence on government is slavery, very few break these soft chains as it takes a lot of effort and guts.
Since the government mandarins (mangers) don't change with every new administration, the policies are set by them and nodded to by the Progressives in charge. These policies set rules to force everyone in to the same mold and give the progressives their "perfectly behaved"person. Notice how regulations are added with little fanfare or notice but none are repealed. Each successive regulation is a little more restrictive than the last. They are after all Progressive. Why should a barbers need a license? Barbers went for a long time without them, so did Doctors come to think of it. And for those who want to point to the endoscopy clinic fiasco, they all had licenses.
Please name what the Education Department has done to enhance education. Have the kids gotten smarter, has the graduation rate gone up? Or has it gone down since the Federal government got involved. Has obesity gone up with Federal school lunch standards? Is McDonald's really to blame, who set the standards? Progressives love big government, they are parasites and cannot make it on their own without "special" help.
Want to improve the job market? Want to improve education? Want to make more money and have money for roads, cops, teachers and firemen. Get government out of the way, reduce the taxes and the regulations that have choked this society in to immobility. Get the government out of the peoples way and let us do what we do best, succeed. We as a society, with government out of the way succeed like nobody's business. That's what we do.
JanK said...
"It is hard to find excuses for incompetence.."
Hmmmmmm.....I wonder if JanK is talking about our most recently departed president, George "clueless" Bush?
I'm sure you know and fondly remember George junior don't you? Ha! Ha! Ha!
He's the guy who took us to two wars in the Middle East; gave tax cuts to his rich buddies; borrowed money from anyone and everyone; and never carried a balanced budget in his 8 years as president....
He also failed to create much needed jobs (only 3 million jobs in 8 years....) during his tenure and did nothing about the 10-12 million jobs that were exported to "dirt cheap wage" countries....
He also increased the national debt on his watch, and did nothing about the fact that over 60% of the oil that we use is imported...
Of course, I'm told almost daily that I should forget George W. BUsh and move on....The common refrain is that he's "no longer president.."
Just how is it possible to simply forget the greatest presidential disaster in our 200+ year history?
What happened to this country under the Bush administration can be compared to ten Pearl Harbors, and five 9/11 terrorist attacks all rolled into one....
Yep, just forget how we ended up in our current mess....Right!
____________________________________
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
(George W. Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004)
Future writes:
"Now that it is clear that the stimulus did not "create" jobs, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi have decided that that they need to appeal to vote buying with entitlements."
Nothing like leading off with a false statement:
"Economists agree: Stimulus created nearly 3 million jobs
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/20...
"IMF urges stimulus to help "dire" job market"
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68...
AP
AP,
That article is wrong, there is no consensus that the stimulus worked.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Pu...
http://republicanleader.house.gov/Upload...
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/177...
http://www.cato.org/special/stimulus09/c...
Notables opposing the stimulus include Nobel Prizing winning economists Ed Prescott, James Buchanan, Vernon Smith and Gary Becker. Other notables include Robert Barro, Greg Mankiw, Arthur Laffer, Larry Lindsey and Martin Feldstein. There are 200 other economists that signed the Cato Institute letter above.
Additionally liberal economists such as Peter Orszag, Larry Summers, Jason Furman, Christina Romer, Alice Rivlin and Alan Blinder have either
A) criticized portions of the stimulus as ineffective
B) criticized past stimulus programs and infrastructure programs
C) produced work contrary to their current claims about the effectiveness of government spending
This arguement was debunked weeks ago! Those who make it are using the same outdated Keynesian economic model that has never ever been right about anything! You can tweek a Keynesian model till the trump of doom and it will never work. This same model calculated that unemployment would not rise above 8% (or 8.8% in a revised version) and that the Stimulus would create millions of private sector jobs.
Besides, you cannot prove a negative. A Keynesian economic model is not a reflection of reality, but rather a fantasy world where reality has no meaning and any spurious results are possible depending upon how the data is slanted. The Libs will say anything in a feeble attempt to justify their failed Stimulus.
First, I find it interesting that the author indicates that the financial crisis began in the 2nd term of President George W. Bush, yet fails to mention that it was at a time when Democrats controlled Congress, and therefore spending.
Second, it is stated in the opinion that the poverty level was alleviated due to extended unemployment benefits. I'm not certain that one receiving unemployment benefits earns enough to escape poverty. Given the lack of the ability of the stimulus to create enough jobs to put any of these people back to work(i.e., sustained high unemployment), what happens to them when they exhaust their 99 weeks of benefits? Do we double them and grant benefits for 198 weeks? We just continue to add to the debt with no regard?
Things were fine until the Dims took over congress in 2007. We've been enjoying the ride down ever since.
How long does the "inherited" thing last anyway?
Oh, and here we have 55 jobs created for a mere 111 million dollars in stimulus.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/17/...
I for one am tired about the sterile and useless claims about "the stimulus" and that it (whatever the stimulus is) did or did not "work".
Whoever makes the claim needs to carefully define his or her terms so that the claim can be evaluated. What, precisely, does "stimulus" consist of? What is that commentator's definition of "work"? Are we getting statements which are the economic equivalent of Bill Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman" in which "sex" was defined by Mr. Clinton to exclude conduct which most of us define as sex?
Let commentators who make such claims define their terms. No one does this. They just make claims that sound truthy, but may or may not be true. The result is Clintonian equivocation on a subject of real public importance.
Guess we all can't have stable government jobs like MR. Angle's BLM job (Bureau of Lazy Men) - Nice evil government pension? Is it Satanic, maybe the Good Witch of anti-Onanism O'Donnel can investigate.
Heard on over 548 radio stations (heard locally on the anti-business anti-consumer spending radio Station KXNT) and heard on FOX News- Dave Ramsey has told people "gambling is stupid" and to eat beans and rice til your mortgage is paid off, has hurt the economy, especially in Nevada. Since 75% of people are upside down in their house, paying off that $300K mortgage on a $140k home will take along time.
I wonder if the teapot crackpots want to bring up the "Clinton Sex stuff" with Ensign, GOVO Gibbons, and Delaware's anti-Onanism O'Donnell still fresh in our memories. Oh yeah, this week Newt Gingrich attended the "Values Voter Forum."
glittle said...
"Republicans are mature, balanced, rational people. they do not use misnomer labels like progressive."
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
You have to hand it to glittle.....He knows how to get a laugh....
gbigs - Its ironic that the 'progressive' really stands for regressive, even backward thinking, and narcissistic people.
Relax, repeat my words: progressive really stands for regressive. progressive is regressive repeat progressive is regressive repeat progressive is regressive.
When I click my mouse you will believe progressive means regressive.
Click !!!
I believe masta. progressive is repressive, progressive is regressive and regressive is progressive, regressive is progressive.
I believe masta bigs, i belieeeeeve!!!
This editorial and most of the posts are treating the economy as some sort of football game, with Democrats versus Republicans.
From a foreigner's point of view, it seems that the fiscal approach of George W. Bush failed miserably. Trickle down is some sort of reverse Ponzi scheme with the suckers being the middle and lower classes.
Now President Obama's opposite approach is to spend like a drunken sailor. It so far does appear to me, despite what this Sun editorial states, that the stimulus spending has been at best grossly disappointing, at worst totally ruinous to America's future.
If only the two parties could work together to craft a wise fiscal policy to help get America out of this unemployment and budget deficit mess.
Has the USA forgotten the middle of the road? It isn't necessary to drive only on the extreme left and right shoulders.
Belleville,
Obama is actually doing the trickle down theory with union bailouts and tax breaks and infrastructure work... Obama is Bush III
PS, it is illogical to assume that being middle of the road is the correct course of action in anything, including driving (you could run into a median)
Patrick,
As yousual yohr lahjick is my oh pick.
The phrase infers that the listener have a rudimentary understanding of common sense and everyday logic. An example of this would be that getting a car out of the ditch, and setting the cruise on 60 in a 55 MPH zone. You know, the way America used to be till your brethren screwed the pooch (Santorum style).
You have both, but it is hidden under layer upon layer of obfuscation training.
I still think you can be deprogrammed.
"America would be worse off if not for Obama." Great campaign slogan. Good luck with that one in November!
gbigs,
You and your rich GOP buddies sent the jobs to China and Mexico and gave the Corporations a tax cut to do it. Get over it and vote Democrat for progress.
The stimulus only worked for Obama's cronies. It certainly didn't help those of us in private industy, or I should say those of us who "used" to work in private industry but are now unemployed. Particularly those 14.3% of us in Nevada. With the country's most powerful senator who is "supposed" to represent us why do we have the highest unemployment, bankruptcy and foreclosures rates in the nation? Hey Harry, why aren't you concentrating on help us Americans instead of illegals???
Even the Dems small business law is going to add a nightmare of paperwork. The law includes a provision requiring small businesses to report to the IRS via a 1099 form all transactions that cost $600 or more, and that includes renter property owners as well.
I wish someone....ANYONE.....would have the guts to tell us a couple of things:
1. What businesses actually received stimulus money.
2. What did they do with it?
3. Why was there not stipulations put in place that if they accepted the money they were expected to put it back into the economy, like, oh I don't know, maybe HIRE PEOPLE???????
4. Who has paid it back, and what was the interest the American taxpayers earned on that money?
I for one am sick and tired of hearing all these politicians crying "we must rescue big business or the economy will fail" "Keep tax cuts for the wealthy and it will trickle down...."
We've done that, and most all of them are sitting on it. That money was not for the purpose of building their profits, it was to hire employees, buy products, and extend credit to smaller businesses that needed it.
We need to hold those accountable who gave away our money and did not demand that there were checks and balances. Both republican and democrat.
I'm Harry Reid and I approved this message.
For rwal2222: Regarding stimulus money, I invite you to drive down East Sahara Avenue, between Sloan and Nellis. They have re-worked the curbs, dividers, sidewalks, tore out the old pavement, laid new dirt and are almost finished re-paving the entire street.
This section of road was decrepit and not maintained. Everyone that lives along there knew that you can't drive the speed limit (45 MPH) without having your tires ripped apart. We all know it was dangerous. Even U.S. Air Force predator drones didn't fly over it. Because it wasn't safe.
They are almost done. And it was done with stimulus money.
Just an answer to your question of where the money goes.
But it probably don't matter. Because most of the neo-conservatives that post on these articles are pretty much card carrying members of the Flat Earth Society and they will find some kind of comment to back their right wing agenda.
Those same people will drive down this stretch of street of smooth road in the future and complain the stimulus money didn't work and the money was wasted.
Hypocrites that just love to complain to suit a political agenda...painting a picture of America that just isn't true...all done in order to influence voters to vote for more scorched earth Republican Party spend that damn money and don't care where it came from.
I guess it don't matter. President Obama and his administration will take the brunt of all the backlash. And all I see they are guilty of is...trying to fix the crap that a totally incompetent Bush administration screwed up.
In November, I intend to do my part and slam the door on face of every Republican I see in Nevada. They had their chance. They blew it. And they're not getting back in to do a Part II to screw things up even more...just so they can continue to pursue power, money, greed and corruption.
They need to sit for at least a generation or two. To figure out how to help America...not victimize the crap out of it.
Wow. Some writers go completely off the rails.
Stuffing cereal boxes with hundred dollar bills would have been far more effective than the policy gaffes of Bush and then Obama. This article paints Obama in some one up light that suggests he is better than his predecessor. Sorry lefties, not true.
Our poverty levels are horrible. Giving unemployed people benefits simply kicks the poverty can down the road. At the benefit end, they still are part of the poverty pic, benefits or not. That and now we have that much more debt piling up at 4% interest. Gee, so next year our poverty rate will undoubtedly increase again. Will you re-run this same piece?
Obamacare ended any viable shot at re-employment. Corporations cut staff and set aside money for the 20% rate hikes they will immediately incur. We have a worthless fiat currency. We are bankrupt and we lack the capacity to ever recover. The government delivered assets we do not have trying to prop up bankrupt banks. Rather than take the harsh steps to end the FED's debt slavery of this nation- Obama represents just one more spineless leader in a series of crony capitalist politicians that have effectively sold citizens into economic slavery. We will spend the rest of our lives trying to dig out from under a debt that cannot be re-paid. Currently 20 trillion and I add the 6 trillion that they don't from Fannie and Freddie's collapse. Undoubtedly tomorrow night we will get more lip service and rhetoric.
Why don't you liberal arts majors take an economics class or better yet- spend 7 minutes watching Zeitgeist on you tube rather than wasting our time writing what a great guy Obama is. Or how he saved some of us at the expense of all of us. We need leaders not hollow suits. That goes for you too, Harry. May you find yourself unemployed soon.
We already threw the greedy republican crooks,
who created this mess, out of the White House.
The BUSH-REPUBLICAN TRICLE DOWN MESS IS STILL
HURTING THIS COUNTRY.
Bush and greedy republicans sent our jobs to
COMMUNIST CHINA and people wonder why there is
poverty in the U.S.?
The stimulus already saved GM and CHRYSLER.
Many other jobs were also saved.
The last thing we need are crazy republican
teabaggers.
Is the trickle up poverty we have now preferable to trickle down?
rusty57...I like that...'trickle up poverty.'
It sounds better than my...'The mud level is rising.' It's more positive.
But here's another one, rusty...
'We're running out of tomorrows.'
Yeah, yeah, it's kinda negative too. Sorry 'bout that.
gbigs, you're strange.
One moment, you sound like a PHD and then the next, you're swinging an axe at everyone like a madman. LOL
But seriously...think about this.
Wouldn't it be better to vote for Reid, since corruption is PROSECUTABLE down the line?
We'll never get rid of Angle, because terminally stupid isn't ILLEGAL!!!
So what do you think? Vote thief stealing the beans or...bean-brain?
Okay, I get that. Get rid of the Dems.
You're right.
Desperate people (that would be the Dems) do stupid things...like legalizing crimes with payday potential, disregarding the log-term costs in dollars & human misery.
But what EXACTLY are the GOP boys going to do, gbigs???
These guys have a brutal history of stomping on the little guy and then eating all the cake...and the crumbs.