More Texans Slip Below The Poverty Line
New Census numbers show the bad economy last year meant more Texans slipping below the poverty line. There was quite a jump in the number of people living in poverty in Texas last year. "It rose more than a percentage point. It was around 16 percent in 2008 and it rose to 17.3 percent in 2009." The Center for Public Policy Priority's Eva DeLuna Castro says some of that was people losing jobs and some of that was the fact that there are a lot of jobs that just don't pay that well. Those low wage jobs usually don't come with health insurance so Texas still leads the country in the percentage of uninsured although there was some good news, the number of children without health insurance did go down last year.