The latest “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage” Report for 2010 throws up disturbing data for the Obama Administration, six weeks before the Congressional mid-term elections (November 2), even as the President confronts the Republican challenge to his determination to extend tax cuts for the middle class - 97 per cent of Americans, whose incomes overall have fallen by 5 per cent over a decade. Several millions have also been added to those without health insurance cover in 2009.

Coincidentally, at the United Nations, world leaders heard more dismal accounts on the state of implementation of the Millennium Development Goals 2015 in the developing world, and calls went out for redoubling efforts to achieve at least some of the key targets such as cutting 'extreme poverty' by one-half (which could be possible in a few leading developing nations) and ensuring universal access to primary education. With five years left for the deadline, UN imparted a sense of urgency for countries to stand up to their obligations, developing nations not reneging but providing the scale of aid promised in 2005 and developing countries to intensify their own efforts in combating poverty and improving social conditions.

President Barack Obama is focused on relief to the middle class families which, he said, were pushed “to the brink” by the economic crisis, but also claimed that but for the tax relief to 95 per cent of American families and other measures to save or create jobs in the Recovery Act early in 2009, many more millions would have been added to the ranks of poor households. His remarks came with the worsening of the poverty situation in the world's large economy, revealed by the Census Bureau in its “Inequality, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage” Report for 2009.

Concerns for global recovery are heightening as US economy is yet to show strong signs of revival to raise hopes of new hiring by businesses which in turn await a pick-up in consumer spending. Meanwhile, there is a sharp rise in jobless persons seeking Social Security disability benefits, reflecting the level of dependence on Government aid to weather the brutal recession.

US poverty, which is being tracked for fifty years, reached 14.3 per cent, the highest since 1994, affecting 44 million people, or one in seven, who lived in households below the poverty threshold of 22,000 dollars for a family of four. The Census report has been seized by the Republicans, engaged in ousting Democrats from their hold over the House of Representatives, to support their charge that the Obama Administration programmes had failed to create jobs.

The economic upheaval also added four million to people without health insurance raising the number to 50.7 million or 16.7 per cent from 15.4 per cent in 2008, the decrease occurring mostly under those covered by private health insurance. The Health Care Reform enactment, the highest priority that President Obama gave in his first year, would come into effect only in 2014. It is designed to extend insurance cover to some 35 million people.

The median income of American households in 2009 was 49,777 dollars, not statistically different from 2008, though in real terms it declined by 1.8 per cent for family households and increased by 1.6 per cent for non-family households. Since the onset of recession in 2007, the median household income declined by 4.2 per cent. Per capita incomes widely vary among groups - White, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians - and the poverty rate increased for all races and ethnicities except Asians who continued to have the highest median household income (65,469 dollars) while it was the lowest for Black households at (32,584 dollars).

Progress in poverty reduction globally has been affected adversely by the financial meltdown of 2008 and the worst economic slump that lasted well into 2009 with the world now barely in recovery mode, barring emerging market economies and some of the other developing countries. The World Bank estimates another 64 million have been pushed into absolute poverty (measured at 1.25 dollars a day). Though poverty worldwide had fallen from 52 per cent in 1981 to 25 per cent in 2005 (with huge variations among low-income countries), the advances made in East Asia and Latin America were not correspondingly shared in South Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa.

Yet, some leading developing countries across regions can perhaps succeed in halving the number of extreme poor by 2015 but even among them, there would be substantial shortfalls in other key social goals. These include reductions in child and maternal mortality, malnutrition and hunger, gender equity in education and improved health services in rural areas. More than one billion people go to bed hungry every night, the World Bank said in a report to UN.

The Bank and IMF have enjoined developed countries to restore their own growth and implement aid promises to help low-income countries meet massive financing needs for infrastructure and ward off effects of climate change, and also dismantle vestiges of protectionism. Their own concessional aid to low-income countries would be scaled up and developing countries are enjoined by IMF to follow growth-promoting policies while taking care of social safety nets.

The world economy no longer holds the promise it had in 2000, when the United Nations set the Millennium Development Goals with endorsement by all nations and international financial institutions. In the decade since, progress has been uneven in striving toward the goals. The global financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that engulfed advanced economies, which depressed trade and capital flows to developing countries, have further dimmed the prospects of substantially achieving the Millennium Development Goals. This is because of advanced economies, USA in particular, would take years to balance their budgets and ensure sustained growth to generate demand or transfer resources. (IPA Service)