Bush Tries to Hide Poverty Number

Misleader: Anticipating the release of devastating new poverty and health care statistics, the Bush administration today took the extraordinary step today of trying to bury the numbers. Specifically, the Administration had its top political appointee at the Census Bureau release the numbers a month earlier than usual, during the August congressional recess when many reporters and Americans take their summer vacations. The rescheduling of the announcement also means that the bad numbers will not come out in September immediately after the Republican National Convention, when they have traditionally been released. With the President's economic and health care agenda leaving millions behind, the Associated Press reports, "the statistics today show the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million."
This is not the first time the White House and Republicans have gone to great lengths to hide damning information. As CBS News reported, President Bush released his military service records late on a Friday night on the eve of a three day weekend in order to make sure the story about his poor attendance was seen by as few people as possible. In Congress, GOP leaders regularly pass the most controversial bills in the middle of the night. Those included bills to slash veterans benefits and health/education funding, as well as spending $87 billion on war in Iraq and passing the President's Medicare bill.