WASHINGTON: The share of Americans who lived in poverty rose slightly when the Covid-19 pandemic shook the economy last year, but the payment of massive aid pumped by Congress had difficulty for many people, the census bureau reported Tuesday.
The size of the official poverty showed an increase in 1 percentage point in 2020, indicating that 11.4% of Americans live in poverty.
It was the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual decreases.
But the more complete addition of poverty, which takes into account the flow of income such as stimulus payments, actually shows that the share of people in poverty is dipped after the assistance is taken into account.
The cover of the pandemic sent tremor through the economy last year.
In April alone, more than 20 million workers lost their jobs.
The unemployed office pays a weekly average of 20 million claims last year.
The economy has rebounded since, but employment is still around 5 million jobs below the pre-pandemic level.
Congress passed five bills of Covid bipartisan response-19 years ago, amounted to almost $ 3.5 trillion and signed the law by President Donald Trump.
This year Democrats encouraged President Joe Biden, nearly $ 1.9 trillion in American rescue plans on the party.
The effect is not reflected in the census report.
Although some federal assistance last year was postponed for reasons of fighting for the cost of the problem with the distribution, as a whole he was isolated by American families from an economic disaster that would exacerbate the community health crisis.
Some groups are abandoned, like people who are not legally authorized in this country.
When Americans fight the steps such as masks wearing and closing the business and lives of the community, parliamentarians both parties are motivated to take dramatic action, said economist Bruce Meyer, a Chicago University expert in poverty.
“You have a very focused Democrats on helping those who are unemployed and hurt, and you have a Republican Party who are willing to do many things to help their president’s re-election, so there is a meeting of incentives, or desires, by politicians, by politicians, by politicians in the second Side, “he said.
Trump finally lost re-election but the census report provides evidence relevant to the current debate for the Biden $ 3.5 trillion social infrastructure plan, said Public Policy Analyst Robert Greenstein from Think Tank Institutions.
“For people who have cynical views that there are not many government effectively done, especially in the poverty front, it will be more difficult to maintain that view,” Greenstein said, which established a budget center and policy priority, non-profit that advocated on behalf of people in earlier low.
Biden’s economic plan extends tax credit for families with children, which is seen as a strategy to reduce childhood poverty and its long-term consequences.