Sorry, but I find this completely unacceptable in a country as rich as the US. How can 43.6 million people be in poverty and more than 50 million not have health insurance and people not think the government needs to do something about it?
And how can they think there is not something fundamentally wrong with public policy that drives this?
The poverty rate surged to 14.3 percent last year, the highest since 1994, as the recession took its toll on incomes, the Census Bureau said Thursday.
The ranks of the working-age poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty.
About 43.6 million people were in poverty last year, the Census Bureau said Thursday in its annual report on the economic well-being of U.S. households. The report covers 2009, President Barack Obama’s first year in office.
The poverty rate climbed from 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, in 2008.
The share of Americans without health coverage rose from 15.4 percent to 16.7 percent — or 50.7 million people — mostly because of the loss of employer-provided health insurance during the recession. Congress passed a health overhaul this year to address rising numbers of the uninsured, but the main provisions will not take effect until 2014.
Lost in the 21st Century 