Poverty Under Obama

Prior to the Great Recession, poverty in America was decreasing.

From 2006 to 2007, the number in poverty fell from 38.8 million by almost another 800,000.  Then, in 2008, at the height of the recession, it was back up to 39.4 million.  By the time Barack Obama took office in 2009, 42.9 million were in poverty.  By 2012, after three years under Obama, a record 48.5 million of our citizens were poor.  Then, in 2013, 4 years past the end of the recession, the number finally started to fall; down to 45.3 or, roughly 14.5% of the total population.

While the 2014 numbers won't be out until the fall, it is highly likely that the number of people in poverty will still be 1-1/2 to 2 million higher than when President Obama took office.

The ugly fact is that we are 6 years past the end of the recession and we still have 45 million poor in this country (assuming a fall to 14% in the 2014 population of 320 million); and, millions more that are close to that level but aren't officially counted as such.  Even though that's 3.5 million less than the high of 48.5 million in 2012, it is still 2.1 million higher than when Obama took office, and still almost 6 million higher than before the recession started.

When President Obama held his recent 3-day summit on poverty, I'm certain that record was never discussed, nor were his policies that have continued to keep the rate so high.  Obviously, his much touted creation of 18 million jobs hasn't significantly helped the poor that much.  Especially, when most of those new jobs are low paying.

References:

Page 21: Census Bureau Report: 2006 and 2007 Poverty: https://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/acs-09.pdf

Page 2: Census Bureau Report: 2008 and 2009 Poverty: http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/acsbr09-1.pdf

Page 1: Census Bureau Report: 2010 and 2011 Poverty: https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr11-01.pdf

Page 1: Census Bureau Report: from 2000 to 2012 Poverty: https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr12-01.pdf

Census Bureau: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013: http://www.census.gov/library/publications/2014/demo/p60-249.html


FUN FACT: More net jobs have been created under Obama than both Bushes combined: http://www.eclectablog.com/2014/10/fun-fact-more-net-jobs-have-been-created-under-obama-than-both-bushes-combined.html

Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html

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