“The nation’s poverty rate was essentially unchanged last year, the first year it hasn’t increased since before President Bush took office… However, the number of people without health insurance increased to 46.6 million in 2005. About 45.3 million people were without insurance the year before.” NYT
It doesn’t take much to realize that the latter statement is equally as important as the first. Three-quarters of all bankruptcies are filed because of one of three occurances: divorce, job loss, and, yes, medical bills. With last year’s bankruptcy protection devolution, we can expect poverty not to skyrocket just yet, bankruptcies to fall (as we historically think of and measure them), but employment and the food-on-the-table and gas-in-the-tank metrics to show dramatic drops.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Should’ve put this up earlier. Tony Snow discussing the president: “Does he often talk about poverty? No,” Snow said. “There hasn’t been a direct discussion of poverty, but he is focused on eliminating the barriers that stand in the way of people making progress.”
