05456
Sept. 1, 2005

Washington office cites
hunger, poverty figures

Presbyterians urged to lobby
in defense of entitlement programs

by Toya Richards Hill

LOUISVILLE — The Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is using the latest U.S. Census figures to rally Presbyterians to action against poverty and hunger.

     The numbers, released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Aug. 30, show that 1.1 million more people in the country lived in poverty in 2004 than in 2003. The official 2004 poverty line for a family of four was an annual income of $19,307, according to the bureau.

     “As followers of Jesus, we need to look seriously at the society that we are building,” Carolynn Race, associate for domestic poverty and environmental issues in the Washington office, said in a release. “How does faithful discipleship impact a nation where 37 million people live below the poverty line, and nearly 46 million children of God have no way to pay for healthcare?”

     The Census Bureau also found that 45.8 million people were without health insurance in 2004, an increase of 800,000 people from the previous year.

     Other results, according to the bureau’s Web site, www.census.gov:

• The poverty rate for people 18 to 64 years old increased from 10.8 percent in 2003 to 11.3 percent in 2004.
  
  
• Rates of poverty declined for Asians (9.8 percent in ’04, down from 11.8 percent), stayed the same for Hispanics (21.9 percent) and blacks (24.7 percent), and rose for non-Hispanic whites (8.6 percent, up from 8.2 percent).
  
  
• The Midwest was the only region to show an increase in poverty — from 10.7 percent to 11.6 percent.
  

     The PC(USA) Washington office — which advocates on behalf of the General Assembly — is urging Presbyterians to contact their representatives in Washington and ask them to oppose budget cuts that would harm the poor and uninsured. Congress returns from its August recess on Sept. 6.

     “Congress is considering making matters worse by reducing funding for food stamps and Medicaid — the two programs that are essential for ‘the least of these’ among us — while at the same time pushing for more tax breaks for those to whom much has been given,” Race said.

     Andrew Kang Bartlett, the PC(USA)’s associate for national hunger concerns, concurred.

     “We’re supposed to be in the midst of an economic recovery, and yet the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen,” Bartlett said. “It’s a moral outrage — and that’s why it’s so important for Presbyterians to talk about this everywhere they go and work to change the policies that worsen poverty.”