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JandP

Saturday, June 18, 2005

A US majority now recognizes the arrogant Mr. Bush's bloody Iraq fiasco. Will a majority now also open their eyes to the devastating domestic fiasco, summarized last April 7th by Congressman Bernie Sanders?

"Over the past 4 years, poverty has gone up. Today, over 4 million more Americans, 36 million overall, are living in poverty than was the case 4 years ago. Sadly, 21.9 percent of U.S. children live in poverty, only slightly better than Mexico where the childhood poverty rate is 27.9 percent. Mr. Chairman, compare that to Denmark, where only 2.4 percent of children live in poverty.
"Today, over five million more Americans do not have health insurance, 45 million in all, than was the case four years ago, and the United States is the only industrialized nation on earth that does not have universal health care.
"Over 14 million American families today are paying more than 50 percent of their income on rent. There are now over 20 million Americans with incomes so low that they had to enter the food stamp program in order to feed their families.
"Last year, more than 1.6 million American families went bankrupt, up from up from 289,000 in 1980. 90 percent of these bankruptcy filings were the result of a lost job, a medical emergency or a divorce.
"Real (inflationary-adjusted) wages have gone down over the past 2 years. The new jobs being created today pay 21 percent less than the jobs that are being lost."