Out of Balance

Olaf Standke on Americans living below the statistical poverty line.

All-time high — how stock brokers love that term. Lately, the Dow Jones has been storming from one record high to the next. Since the latest news that the Federal Reserve will continue flooding the market with cheap money, the upward trend is likely to continue — much to the delight of America’s super-wealthy, who, according to the latest figures, are richer than ever, thanks to shrewd stock trading and generous tax gifts from the U.S. government. The nation’s poor, meanwhile, do not share in the profits. As the latest census bureau statistics show, every sixth American now lives officially below the statistical poverty line, set for a family of four at $23,492 per year. The actual number living in poverty is probably far higher than that.

That prompted the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies to recently issue a statement warning of any future cuts in welfare programs. So how does the House of Representatives — or more accurately, the Republican majority in the House — respond to that advice? It promptly votes for drastic cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which gives about $80 million annually to around 50 million people in need. The cuts mean that 6 million current recipients will lose their support — poor families, hungry children, vulnerable seniors and those looking for work — according to an outraged Conference of Catholic Bishops. The business magazine Forbes currently estimates the assets of the top 400 richest Americans at an all-time high of $2 billion. That’s in “God’s own country.”