Senate committee examines rising poverty rates

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Senate committee examines rising poverty rates:

Almost one in seven Americans are living below the poverty line, with an alarming number of children, nearly one in five, living in poverty, according to statistics presented at a U.S. Senate committee hearing last week.

Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus (D-Mont.), referring to U.S. Census Bureau data, said the United States ranked “34th out of 35 economically advanced countries on child poverty, just ahead of Romania.”

“That’s not good,” he added bleakly.

The Senate Finance Committee called the June 5 hearing to review the efficacy of federal programs designed to combat poverty, specifically the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), set to expire Sept. 30.

Dr. Ron Haskins, a former adviser on welfare to the White House and now co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, told the committee that some progress had been made in reducing poverty rates for the elderly over the last 30 years. However, despite a “proliferation of social programs” and increases in spending of up to $500 billion, there had been “surprisingly little progress” in combating poverty overall.

“The nation’s inability to reduce children’s poverty is especially troublesome,” he said.

Haskins identified multiple contributors to the high poverty levels. “Declining work rates, stagnant wages, the rise of female-headed families, inferior education, and the arrival of millions of immigrants with poor education and low skills are little engines pushing up the poverty rate.” theepochtimes.com

FACTS & FIGURES

The official federal poverty line is an annual income of up to $22,350 for a family of four. However, it is calculated that, on average, families need double that amount to pay for their basic necessities. Fox News Latino

Critics say the poverty line does not take into consideration certain factors such as rent or the median price of a home. If it did, the percentage of Americans living under the poverty line would raise to 30 percent. Wise Geek

The number of Florida's children living in poverty swelled 35 percent from 2006 to 2010 - an increase that especially hurt black and Hispanic youth - a new report shows. orlandosentinel.com

Using the most recent statistics available, the report found that nearly one in every four Florida children, or about 924,000 collectively, now lives below the federal poverty line. Two-thirds of black children live in families classified as low-income, meaning they earn less than $44,100 a year for a family of four. orlandosentinel.com