Listening to people on Tavis talk about how there are fewer poor kids

[AP]

in this recession than in previous two. It reminded me of something Paul Krugman said in his Liberal Oasis interview -- this government has spent about 700 billion dollars this year, 500 bill of which is defeicit spending, in its swing from surplus to defecit. He was making the point that that should have bought an awful lot of jobs, since it's about 10 million jobs at the average salary (http://www.liberaloasis.com/krugman.htm).

I was thinking, is this the Bush strategy? We know that most of that money is going to Haliburton, and other large companies, but some of it must be going towards keeping the poorest Americans' heads just above water. It's the middle class who is the source of all this income being transferred to Haliburton and Enron (it's the middle class which had the retirement savings, and who have the jobs generating the cash going into Republican pockets).

This administration isn't primarily an administration brutalizing the poor (because they WANT the poor in the job market driving wages down). This administration is primarily about gently, quietly destroying the middle class.

[JustJoe]

1. Census Shows Ranks of Poor Rose by 1.3 Million

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/national/03CENS.html?th

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 — The number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by more than 1.3 million last year, even though the economy technically edged out of recession during the same period, a Census Bureau report shows.

The spike in economic hardship hit individuals and families alike. The report indicated that the total percentage of people in poverty increased to 12.4 percent from 12.1 percent in 2001 and totaled 34.8 million. At the same time, the number of families living in poverty went up by more than 300,000 in 2002 to 7 million from 6.6 million in 2001.

The number of children in poverty rose by more than 600,000 during the same period to 12.2 million. The rate of increase in children under age 5 jumped a full percentage point to 19.8 percent living below the poverty line from 18.8 percent a year earlier.

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