Yahoo! News - Behind numbers lie struggles, successes

From the USA Today article:

...millions of other Americans, Clark, 44, lives in "a perpetual state of panic financially" - otherwise known as poverty. Census figures released Thursday show the number of impoverished Americans grew by 1.3 million from 2002 to 2003, and the number without health insurance increased by 1.4 million.

That left about 35.9 million people living below the poverty line in 2003. And the number of uninsured rose to 45 million.

Precisely how Americans have fared this year since the numbers were gathered remains a point of contention. The Bush administration argued Thursday that the statistics on poverty and income failed to account for an improving economy that continues to help millions of others prosper.

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