U.S. Sees Highest Poverty Spike Since The 1960s-The Associated Press Blames The GOP

According to the U.S. Census Bureau the number of Americans below the poverty levels are at numbers not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government's so-called War on Poverty (which didn't work).

In January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty.  The Census bureau said 20 percent of the country's children are poor.

Of course the AP, which covered this news suggested that the higher poverty levels were because of :

billions in federal government spending cuts [that will] begin squeezing services for the poor nationwide. They are hitting as the U.S. slowly climbs out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Yep...that horrible sequester of 2013 the biggest world-wide disaster since the December 2012 Mayan Apocalypse: 

The spending cuts, known as the sequester, are going to hit Head Start especially hard.

"Before the sequester only half of the need was being met. Now, after the cuts fully take effect, there will be 900 children already in the program who won't be able to take part," said William McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities.

One wonders why the Associated Press doesn't point to programs such as the investigation of Snail Sex or the study of duck penis' or even President Obama's 100 million dollars to study the brain as ways to fund the cuts in charity.

While the U.S. economy is slowly recovering, improvements for those deep in poverty do not keep pace with the cuts now in place.

The spending reductions going into effect will hit hardest at Americans whose prospects are not directly tied to the economy.

And who's to blame for the budget cuts? The Republicans of course!

Democrats want a deficit reduction plan that includes some spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans balk at any more tax increases and insist the problem should be addressed solely by reigning in spending. That feud continues as the two sides battle out future fiscal issues.

Notice the Associated Press ignores the fact that Obama got his tax increases as part of the fiscal cliff plan? A plan which increased spending by almost $4 trillion over seven years. And, according to the AP those mean Republicans are not done.

Republicans want to see even more cuts in next year's budget, reductions that would, by and large, return military spending to pre-sequester levels and provide big tax benefits to wealthy Americans.

Funny I get all of the GOP press releases, I missed the part about the proposed legislation to screw the poor and give to the rich.

Here's the truth the national debt is quickly approaching $17 trillion dollars (and that doesn't even include the unfunded pension and entitlement liabilities). Its not really a matter of cutting safety net programs its a matter of doing what no administration, Democratic or Republican has done. Listing all of the government programs, prioritizing them cutting the waste, looking for economies (such as the GAO study which showed the government how to save $100 billion+ annually in defense spending by cutting specific duplicated & wasteful programs).

Once all that is done, we must prioritize the rest of the spending. In the end the argument shouldn't be more spending plus taxes vs more cuts it should be cutting waste, finding efficiencies then arguing what should get funded. 

Just like your budget and mine this nation cannot afford to pay for everything so we need to pick our priorities.  But all the President and his media lemmings want to do is blame the Conservatives in the GOP....when they do that the only people who suffer are our children and grandchildren who will be stuck with the bill and a collapsing economy.