Clinton hails household income gains

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, September 24) -- In a Rose Garden ceremony Thursday morning, President Bill Clinton credited his administration's continuing economic initiatives for income gains documented in the Census Bureau's annual report on poverty. The report was released earlier Thursday.


Surrounded by his economic advisers, President Clinton announced drops in poverty levels Thursday

The Census Bureau found widespread drops in poverty levels across the board, with African-American and Hispanic families among those who enjoyed the most dramatic improvements. In addition, inflation-adjusted real median income levels climbed to their highest levels since 1989, the most recent income level peak.

Many groups, including households headed by African-Americans, married-couple households and households headed by people age 55 to 64, all saw median income levels rise above those 1989 levels.

Clinton, who was joined by his economic advisers, said the report "represents one more year's worth of compelling evidence that this economic strategy is working." He urged a continuation of the strategy "that got us here in the first place -- above all, the strict fiscal discipline that has given us low interest rates, low inflation, big investments and more jobs."

Though Clinton hailed most of the findings in the report, he raised concern about the income inequality that remains.

Clinton said the lowest 20 percent of the nation's income groups saw the sharpest increase in income percentages, closing the income gap for the first time in 20 years. But he said "that inequality is still too high, and it simply means there are too many American families out there working hard, doing everything we could possibly ask of them, and still having a hard time getting ahead."

Clinton hails household income gains

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Thursday, September 24, 1998