Fraying at the Collar

Listening to the local NPR station yesterday, there was a story on rise in poverty in the families' of elementary school students in Springfield Massachusetts. I located the article from which the report was derived.

Poverty soaring for area students

The percent of school children living in poverty has grown significantly over the last five years in Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee (all in Massachusetts) and more than a dozen other school districts in the Connecticut River Valley, according to new figures from the U.S. Census bureau.

However, area school officials said they rely on the number of children who qualify for free or reduced cost lunches in their districts as a measure of poverty in their schools, and based on those figures, the federal numbers grossly underestimate the problem.

Here are a few more related articles on this same rise in poverty. When I did a search on the issue I was knocked over.

Poverty figures: Helpless children are the victims

It is absolutely appalling to hear Census figures showing that as of 2005, 35 percent of El Paso children ages 5 through 17 come from families living in poverty.

Census shows rise in Iowa poverty rates

Iowa grew poorer over the first five years of the decade, a trend that's more dramatic in some areas and includes middle-class incomes.

Is the economy starting to catch up to the Bush years in office.

The US jobless rate rose to 5.0 per cent last month from 4.7 per cent in November, a government report showed last Friday, the largest monthly rise since October 2001, shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The report stirred fears the US economy might be falling into a recession, if not already in one, and led financial markets to raise bets that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates by a hefty half a percentage point at a meeting on January 29-30. Source

If you read the following article, you will see that one of Bush's points to stimulate the economy is to provide tax cuts to corporations. The Democrats are willing to concede. Always important that the rich get richer in a recession.

From the NY Times: Bush and Congress Seen Pushing for Stimulus Plan

In a fresh sign of the possibility of an agreement on a roughly $100 billion package of tax cuts and spending to spur the economy, Nancy Pelosi of California, the speaker of the House, and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, wrote to President Bush on Friday saying, “We want to work with you.”

Mr. Bernanke (Head of the Fed) laid out a bleak picture of the economy on Thursday and suggested that the Fed would cut interest rates soon. That has made it more acceptable for lawmakers to discuss the need for actions to avoid being blamed for failing to respond.