CNN/Money Kerry correct re household inc. dec. under Bush for below median

[papau]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/12/news/economy/election_incomes/index.ht...

Household income is little changed since 2000 (on average - rich are richer offset by non-rich being poorer)
April 12, 2004: 2:39 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - John Kerry says the nation's household income situation is miserable. George Bush says it's improving. Economists say the truth is somewhere in between.

The state of household budgets and buying power became another battleground in the campaign Monday, as challenger John Kerry argued that the middle class families are financially much worse off than they were before the Bush presidency. The White House suggested that the Republican tax cuts, some of which Kerry opposed, have improved the condition of the average American family.

But economists say real household income is little changed since 2000, with gains in household income due to tax cuts being wiped out by inflation, and stagnant wages providing almost no help.

Economists cite data to suggest that Kerry is right when he suggests that the wealthy have fared far better than the middle and lower income families during the last four years. <snip>

(COMMENT BY POSTER -while average after-tax income, adjusted for inflation, showed about 5.9 percent growth in the three years after Bush took office, Median income - the point at which half the population has more and half the population has less -- per Census Department's own data shows pretax median household income rose 0.6 percent to $42,409 between 2000 and 2002, the most recent year available from that agency, and when adjusted for inflation, that gain became a 3.3 percent decline during the same period -- the figure that Kerry has been using in his "misery index" - so our "liberal media spins the increase in health spending as a "good" that offsets the lack of income growth because the higher health costs meant Medicaid for the poor and Medicare for the aged cost more!!!!???!!! "rise in federal spending on entitlement programs"..... do we add to the wealthy income increase number the welfare contracts to their corporations?)