New York Times editorial August 28, 2004

If anyone required further evidence that President Bush's fiscal policies have not worked the way he says they have, this week's report from the Census Bureau provided it. In brief, from 2001 through 2003, poverty increased, income stagnated and the ranks of the uninsured grew, while the United States spent some $400 billion on tax cuts, which mainly benefited wealthy families. The Bush administration seemed intent on minimizing the political impact of the report, releasing the data on Thursday, instead of the usual date in late September, to get it done before the convention. But the numbers spoke for themselves. Since Mr. Bush came to power, 4.3 million people have fallen below the poverty line, set at $18,660 for a family of four in 2003, bringing the total number of people living in poverty in 2003 to 35.9 million, or 12.5 percent of the American population.

The poor will always suffer most from recession and job losses. But one sure way to stem the slide into poverty is by bolstering state programs that directly benefit the poor, like job training, health care and child care. The administration devoted only 3 percent of its stimulus spending to aid for state governments. Congress and the administration have also done nothing to enhance the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. As a result, while the number of children living in poverty increased by 11 percent over the past three years, the number of children receiving welfare declined by 10 percent over the same period. Adding to the gloom, median family income - $44,853 in 2000 - fell by $1,535 during the administration's first three years, while the number of Americans without health insurance, according to the Census Bureau, grew by 5.2 million, to 45 million in 2003. The president and Congress have largely ignored this problem, while leaving little room to address it later by ballooning the deficit with tax cuts.

A Bush campaign official suggested that the census report was misleading because it did not reflect the economic growth of the past 11 months. In fact, the report covers all of 2003. And in three of the seven months of 2004 for which data is available, job growth has not been strong enough to even keep up with population growth. Moreover, a Commerce Department report released yesterday showed that economic momentum slowed in the spring, with the economy expanding at a rate of only 2.8 percent, the slowest advance in more than a year, versus 3.0 percent as originally reported. The downward revision reflects June's record trade deficit of $55.8 billion.

It remains to be seen whether this week's bad economic news turns out to be bad political news for Mr. Bush. But for tens of millions of Americans, it is already old news.

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