Mitch McConnell And Senate Republicans Cause Poverty To Grow At Highest Level Since 1960s

New real-time research revealed that poverty jumped 2.4% in five months, which is the highest annual increase since the 1960s.

New research from economist Bruce Meyer, from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Economics and the Lab For Economic Opportunities (LEO) showed that poverty is increasing to levels not seen in nearly 60 years.

The findings for November paint a dire picture of a struggling nation:

– Poverty rose by 2.4 percentage points from 9.3 percent in June to 11.7 percent in November, adding 7.8 million to the ranks of the poor since June.

– The 2.4 percentage point rise in poverty in the five months since June is nearly double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s.

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– Poverty has risen each month since June, even though the unemployment rate has fallen by 40 percent (from 11.1 percent to 6.7 percent) over this period.

– With Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) due to expire this month and near all-time high coronavirus cases continuing to strain the economy, poverty is likely to continue to rise in the absence of additional relief.

-The rise in poverty over the past five months is most noticeable for certain disadvantaged groups such as Blacks (poverty up 3.1 percentage points) and those with a high school education or less (poverty up 5.1 percentage points).

House Democrats passed the HEROES Act on May 15. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have refused to vote on the bill. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are the reason why poverty is growing at a rate that has been seen in decades in the United States.

McConnell and his Republican caucus are causing a poverty epidemic in the nation, and the small pre-Christmas deal will not be enough to undo the damage that Republicans have done by blocking real COVID relief for months.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association