CENSUS;POVERTY RATE AND INCOME REMAINS UNCHANGED IN US

For the first time since 1992, the poverty rate and household income of Americans did not change from one year to the next while the number of young people without health insurance dropped, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The status quo is a thin silver lining for a nation struggling to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression.
"It’s a metaphor for the whole economy,” said Ron Haskins, senior fellow and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington, D.C., think tank. “We're running in place. Poverty is high. Income is low. We're not making up for lost time.”
The annual Census report released Tuesday tracks income, poverty and health insurance coverage, and comes as Congress continues to battle over full implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Median household income in 2012 was $51,017, not statistically different in real terms from 2011’s $51,100. Household income had dropped the two previous years but is still 8.3 percent below pre-recession levels and 9 percent lower than the all-time peak in 1999.
More than 46 million people – or 15 percent – live in poverty, according to the report. Poverty increased for all age groups but is highest among children.
The average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2012 was $23,492, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation. The 2012 poverty rate was 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession.
“No way this is good news,” Haskins said. “Even if it came down a little bit, it’s still way above where we were.