And The Verdict on Living Standards: Ouch!

The Center On Budget and Policy Priorities has released the numbers on earnings, poverty and health insurance for 2003. Does this sound like we have "turned the corner?"

"2003 marked the third straight year that living standards have deteriorated, with poverty increasing, the number of uninsured climbing, and the income of the typical household stagnating.  The income of the typical, middle-class household is $1,535 below where it was three years earlier, while 4.3 million more Americans were poor than in 2000, and 5.2 million fewer people had health insurance, producing the largest number of uninsured on record, with the data going back to 1987.  Further, by some indicators, gaps between the most well-off and other Americans — already at exceptionally wide levels — became still larger in 2003."