U.S. Poverty Rate Rises; Christians say Public Policy is Key [View All]

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005 Posted: 9:27:53AM EST

The nation’s poverty rate rose for the fourth consecutive year, bringing the rate to 12.7 percent of the population last year, according to statistics by the Census Bureau.


The Bureau on Tuesday said over 37 million people were living in poverty – up 1.1 million people from 2003.

The last decline in the overall poverty was in 2000, when the census found that 31.1 million people – 11.3 percent of the population - lived under the threshold.

According to Jim Winkler, the General Secretary of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, the poverty is due in large parts to the nation’s public policy priorities.

“This is beyond a simple matter of ups and downs in the economy,” said Winkler. “The policy of this administration has been to aggressively redistribute money from the poor to the rich.” - - -


http://www.christianpost.com/article/church/2271/section/us.poverty.rate.rises.christians.say.public.policy.is.key/1.htm