US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960s
In this July 16, 2012, photo, Laura Fritz, 27, left, with her daughter Adalade Goudeseune fills out a form at the Jefferson Action Center, an assistance center in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. Both Fritz grew up in the Denver suburbs a solidly middle class family, but she and her boyfriend, who has struggled to find work, and are now relying on government assistance to cover food and $650 rent for their family. / AP Photo/Kristen Wyatt
(AP) WASHINGTON - The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.
Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.
The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest since 1965.
Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. Suburbs are seeing increases in poverty, including in such political battlegrounds as Colorado, Florida and Nevada, where voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth.
"I grew up going to Hawaii every summer. Now I'm here, applying for assistance because it's hard to make ends meet. It's very hard to adjust," said Laura Fritz, 27, of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, describing her slide from rich to poor as she filled out aid forms at a county center. Since 2000, large swaths of Jefferson County just outside Denver have seen poverty nearly double.
Fritz says she grew up wealthy in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, but fortunes turned after her parents lost a significant amount of money in the housing bust. Stuck in a half-million dollar house, her parents began living off food stamps and Fritz's college money evaporated. She tried joining the Army but was injured during basic training.
Now she's living on disability, with an infant daughter and a boyfriend, Garrett Goudeseune, 25, who can't find work as a landscaper. They are struggling to pay their $650 rent on his unemployment checks and don't know how they would get by without the extra help as they hope for the job market to improve.
In an election year dominated by discussion of the middle class, Fritz's case highlights a dim reality for the growing group in poverty. Millions could fall through the cracks as government aid from unemployment insurance, Medicaid health care coverage for the poor, welfare and food stamps diminishes.
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When your nominee is a pioneer in outsourcing American jobs to third world countries, of course you filibuster a bill to encourage bringing those jobs back home to America.
They are shameless. Senate Tea-Publicans continue to sabotage the U.S. economy by filibustering the Bring Jobs Home Act last week!
The bill, which needed 60 votes in order for the Senate to [end the GOP filibuster], was defeated on a vote of 56-42, proving without a doubt that the republicans do not want to help spur the economy and job creation in America!
OCCUPY!
LOL! That's the typical republican talking point of delusions.
They are all symbolic votes just like the 33 votes to repeal the ACA!
Give us some bill numbers, so we can check them out a bit closer for toxic poison pills that only make the GOP look even more ridiculous!
Fresh from filibustering the DISCLOSE Act one week ago, the republican minority in the Senate also showed Americans that they were only going to protect companies that ship jobs overseas, and with another record filibuster, killed The Bring Jobs Home Act.
The Bring Jobs Home Act would have created a new tax credit for companies that spend money to bring overseas jobs back to the United States, and eliminate a tax credit for companies that spend money to move jobs overseas.
More PROOF that republicans hate America and don't want to create jobs here in the USA, but just like mitt romney, create them overseas!