September 4, 1992

The number of Americans living in poverty soared last year by 2.1 million, to a total of 35.7 million, and the poverty rate rose for the second consecutive year, to 14.2 percent, the Government reported today. The new rate is the highest since the peak caused by the recession of the early 1980's. The actual number of poor people is the highest since 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his war on poverty.

The Economy Sales rose 9.2 percent for domestically built cars and light trucks in late August. Analysts said demand for cars was flat, but purchases of mini-vans, sport utility vehicles and other light trucks for personal transportation sent that category up 24.2 percent. [ D1. ] Small businesses were the hardest hit by Hurricane Andrew, said I.B.M.'s general manager in South Florida, whose own home was devastated. But the damage will take weeks to assess. [ D1. ]

Pushing his new class-oriented attack that President Bush secretly plans to "devastate America's middle class and its workers" to pay for tax cuts favoring the rich, Bill Clinton today accused the President of pursuing economic policies that would force him to gut Social Security. The accusation was not based on any known plans by the Bush Administration but rather on an edifice of inductive and political reasoning: a series of mathematical assumptions worked out by the Democratic Presidential nominee's advisers, based in turn on Mr. Bush's promise to cut taxes while also achieving a savings in Federal spending. Clinton Tours Dade County "Two weeks ago at the Republican convention Mr. Bush addressed an anxious people who looked for real answers to our economic problems," Mr. Clinton told leaders of an A.F.L.-C.I.O. meeting in Washington. "But instead of a credible plan, he gave us more incredible promises. In the face of a $400 billion deficit this year he made a promise of another tax cut for the wealthy, then promised everybody else an across-the-board tax cut. He said 'We're going to pay for it with spending cuts and I'll tell you about it later.' "

A few years ago, the scent of cheese blintzes and the buzz of shop talk and schmoozing filled Berger's Delicatessen and Restaurant long before the first rays of sunlight glinted down West 47th Street. No more. Now, only during normal Manhattan breakfast hours do the counter stools and stackable chairs begin to fill up at this narrow hangout in the diamond district. This block, the prime distribution center for a nation that buys more diamonds than any other, has suffered its sharpest decline since the trade migrated from Canal Street to midtown after World War II.

When Hurricane Andrew cut through Donna Melvin's apartment here, and the windows broke and the water rushed in and it felt as if the world was ending, Quentin, the 3-year-old son quivering in her arms, turned to her and cried: "Mommy, make the lion stop. I don't want us to die." She held him tighter and told him, "God is bowling." Nine days later, Quentin will not let her out of his sight. He grabs her by the legs when darkness falls or when the wind kicks up again. He refuses to sleep by himself as he used to. He starts to cry when it rains.