Poor us

The Census Bureau released its poverty data this week and the results were pretty much what you would expect with a persistent recession and/or a very weak recovery further weakened by the phasing out of Recovery Act programs. Without the latter, things would have been much worse.

For an overview, here are the comments of Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and here's an article about the situation in West Virginia.

OKAY, LET'S LOOK AT SOME BUGS. Having satisfied my duties as a social justice blogger, I now suggest you check out this Wired Science post which shows close up pictures of scary monsters. Fortunately, these monsters are way smaller than we are.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The calendar of wonks

You may have missed it, but yesterday was something of a major holiday amongst policy wonks such as myself. I am referring to what is called "Poverty Day," when the US Census releases data on poverty, incomes, and the uninsured for the previous year.

As you might expect for the worst year of the worst recession since the Great Depression, things were pretty bad out there. Here's part of a statement by Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

The Census Bureau data for 2009 reflect the severity of the recent recession, as poverty rose sharply and the number of uninsured spiked…. Both the number and percentage of Americans in poverty climbed. The number of poor people rose by 3.7 million, to 43.6 million. The percentage of people in poverty rose from 13.2 percent to 14.3 percent.

Poverty would have risen much higher without the temporary expansions in unemployment insurance benefits provided by the Recovery Act and other legislation. In 2008, unemployment benefits kept 900,000 Americans out of poverty. In 2009, by contrast, unemployment benefits kept 3.3 million Americans out of poverty, an analysis of today’s data shows. The majority of the increase in UI benefits in 2009 came from the Recovery Act

Here's the full statement.

The number of uninsured Americans climbed to over 50 million in 2009. That's something to think about as politicians on the right dream of undoing this year's steps toward covering all Americans. Greenstein notes that

the increase in the ranks of the uninsured would have been substantially greater if not for Medicaid and CHIP, which covered more people as the number of people lacking employer-based insurance swelled. These findings underscore the relevance of the recently enacted health reform law, which substantially expands coverage for people who cannot obtain insurance through an employer. Had health reform been in place in 2009, the number of people without health insurance would have risen far less.

Things aren't all that great in El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia, as the WV Center on Budget and Policy reports, although they haven't been as bad as might be expected based on previous recessions.

NOTE: Goat Rope missed a rare day of posting due to some of those curve balls that life ha a way of throwing.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Wonk holiday

Random animal picture.

In case you missed it, yesterday was a major policy wonk holiday. It was "Poverty Day," a movable feast during which the Census Bureau release a report on incomes, health insurance coverage and--you guessed it--poverty.

If you didn't observe it, you have El Cabrero's permission to take today off.

As one might expect during a major recession, the news wasn't good--and this was just 2008. Next year's report will show the effects of the recession at its presumed height and will be much worse.

Here's an overview of the report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. One key point for the current health care reform debate is that private health coverage declined as more people lost work-based insurance.

West Virginia saw a 6.7 percent increase in the number of uninsured residents, according to West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. Those without care jumped from 254,000 to 271,000, an increase of 17,000.

Here's a good overall interpretation by CBPP's Robert Greenstein. Here's his conclusion:

Moreover, the expected increases in 2009 in poverty and in the number and percentage of uninsured people would be substantially greater if not for the economic recovery law that the Administration and Congress enacted earlier this year. Just seven provisions of that law — including tax credits for working families, expansions of unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance, and one-time payments to senior citizens, veterans, and people with disabilities — will prevent an estimated 6.2 million Americans, including 2.4 million children, from falling into poverty, according to an analysis the Center issued yesterday.[1] Moreover, these figures understate the poverty-preventing effects of the recovery act because they do not capture other provisions of the law, such as increases in housing, child care services, or the law’s effects on preserving or creating jobs. In addition, the law’s increases in medical assistance are preventing hundreds of thousands more from becoming uninsured.

Finally, today’s disquieting health insurance figures underscore the need for comprehensive health care reform. The decline in job-based health coverage is leaving millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured. As noted above, the new Census data show that last year’s economic decline did not fuel an even greater drop in overall insurance coverage only because of the expansion in coverage by public insurance programs.

Health reform bills that Congress is considering would help to address this problem by covering tens of millions of Americans who lack insurance. They would strengthen employer coverage and Medicaid, offer new health insurance choices for Americans, and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage or charging exorbitant amounts to people with medical conditions. The bills also seek to slow the growth of health care costs, which is essential to expanding coverage and sustaining progress in reducing the ranks of the uninsured over the long run.

EIGHT YEARS AGO today the US and the world received a shock that's still being felt.

EAT IT. The grassroots food revolution is still going strong. In this item, author Michael Pollan credits Wendell Berry for helping to start it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED