WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau's annual snapshot of economic health in America offered a yellow warning light for the middle class, as an unchanged poverty level and a widening erosion of health insurance coverage tarnished news that household income was finally beginning to rise.
Household income rose from 2004 to 2005 for the first time since 1999, the agency said in its report, released Tuesday.
But even that news contained a mixed message. Earnings of full-time workers fell during that period, and incomes rose partly because there were more households in which a second adult joined the workforce.
Democrats portrayed the report as evidence that the circumstances of many families had deteriorated under President Bush. "Our economy is moving in the wrong direction, and President Bush and the Republicans in Congress are woefully out of touch with this fact," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).
Rob Portman, Bush's budget director, had a different interpretation. He said the economy's ability to bounce back from the 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina a year ago "is a testament to the strong work ethic of the American people, the resilience of our economy and pro-growth economic policies, including tax relief."
Adjusted for inflation, the median income of U.S. households increased by 1.1% last year to $46,326, its highest level since 2001. The median marks the point where half of households received more income and half received less.
Gains were substantially greater for high-income households than those at the bottom of the scale. "This is a pretty unbalanced expansion," said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist for the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
The poverty rate last year was 12.6%, a statistically insignificant decline from the previous year's 12.7%. Poverty had been climbing since 2000.
Altogether, nearly 37 million people lived below the government's poverty line in 2005, or 90,000 fewer than in 2004. The poverty line, which varies with family characteristics, was $19,806 last year for a family of four with two children younger than 18.
The number of people without health insurance rose by about 1.3 million in 2005, to 46.6 million. That amounted to 15.9% of the population, up from 15.6% in 2004 and the highest level since 1998.
The number of insured people also rose by 1.4 million.
