{"id":4821,"date":"2011-09-19T05:49:50","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T09:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4821"},"modified":"2011-09-19T07:34:25","modified_gmt":"2011-09-19T11:34:25","slug":"morning-read-poverty-in-numbers-and-in-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/09\/19\/morning-read-poverty-in-numbers-and-in-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: Poverty, in numbers and in lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press, by way of the Glens Falls Post Star<\/a>, is reacting this morning to news that one in six Americans now lives below the poverty line — including millions of our neighbors who used to cling, however tenuously, to the middle class.<\/p>\n

At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears.<\/p>\n

She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem.<\/p>\n

“It’s like there is no way out,” says Kris Fallon.<\/p>\n

She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Watertown Daily Times, on its editorial page<\/a>, is reacting to the same Census figures, and suggests that government may be the only thing holding back poverty for millions more of our citizens.<\/p>\n

But the data indicate even more Americans could slip into poverty without government assistance.<\/p>\n

The Census Bureau estimated that extended unemployment benefits passed in 2009 to give workers up to 99 weeks of benefits lifted more than 3 million people above the poverty line.<\/p>\n

Those benefits are running out, and the unemployment rate remains around 9 percent.<\/p>\n

Social Security benefits lifted another 20 million senior citizens and disabled above the poverty line.<\/p>\n

Americans are also losing their private health insurance through their employer, either due to unemployment or employers dropping benefits that have been too costly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

President Barack Obama is proposing a new jobs bill; Republicans are pushing back — what do you think?\u00a0 Time for action in Washington?\u00a0 If so — what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press, by way of the Glens Falls Post Star, is reacting this morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4822,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions\/4822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}