USA TODAY International Edition

With more child poverty, recovery seems elusive

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In 2013, about 22% of children in the U. S. lived below the poverty line, up from 18% in 2008, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

This is not something to be proud of. Shame. With all the tax dollars collected from those who actually pay taxes, not enough is being done to educate and lift these citizens up.

Susie Duncan Williams

We can still feel the ripples of George W. Bush’s economy.

Take note that the most current numbers cited are from 2013. I wonder how people are faring now that the unemployme­nt rate is at 5.3%.

Mike García

How about eight more years of failed supply- side, trickledow­n economics? It has been a failure since Ronald Reagan started us down that rabbit hole. Both parties are guilty and owned by corporate America.

It’s time for real change. Scan- dinavia has some great examples of a free- market economy with strong social programs.

Maybe Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidenti­al candidate, knows something that bought- and- paid- for politician­s don’t.

T Edward Wetmore

Our government and entitlemen­t programs essentiall­y reward people for having children when they can’t afford them. Government pays for your family’s food and health care and offers Pell Grants to pay for college. Middle- class people can’t afford to have kids anymore — or at least not more than one kid — because everything is so expensive, from child care to health insurance to college tuition. Giving birth to more kids in poverty won’t improve our country.

Jenna Schmidt Gonzalez

It’s sad that these children seem predestine­d to suffer and can do little to nothing about it. It is hard, if not impossible, to eliminate all poverty, but it does not make it any less tragic. No matter what anyone says, the lot of the poor never changes.

Bruce Mort

History shows the best thing to reduce poverty is an expanding economy. A rising tide lifts all boats. We will never get that with what we have now.

Harold Lowe

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