VivirLatino

President Bush may be on a Latin American tour to prove he cares about poverty
but recent numbers show that he should have stayed closer to home.

The number of Americans living in severe poverty has
expanded dramatically under the Bush administration,
with nearly 16 million people now living on an
individual income of less than $5,000 (£2,500) a
year or a family income of less than $10,000,
according to an analysis of 2005 official census data.
The analysis, by the McClatchy group of newspapers,
showed that the number of people living in extreme
poverty had grown by 26 per cent since 2000. Poverty
as a whole has worsened, too, but the number of
severe poor is growing 56 per cent faster than the
overall segment of the population characterised as
poor – about 37 million people in all according to
the census data. That represents more than 10 per
cent of the US population, which recently surpassed
the 300 million mark.

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