DAILY BEAST: Romney’s claim that very poor Americans have a safety net is belied by the facts: jobless benefits and health insurance are limited, housing assistance has been reduced, and ‘welfare’ has been devastated by budget cuts. …
First, the numbers. Flush from victory in Florida, Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien on Wednesday morning that he was concerned neither with the very poor nor the very rich. Instead, he is focused on “middle-income Americans…the 90 to 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”
Well, hate to break it to you, Mitt, but there’s a whole lot more poor people in America to be “not concerned about” than that—a lot more. Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau back in September showed that just over 46 million Americans—or 15.1 percent of the population—lived below the official poverty line ($11,100 for an individual, $22,300 for a family of four)…. (more)
