The Obama Legacy: On average, 45 million people received SNAP benefits each month in fiscal year 2011, which represents a 70 percent increase over the roughly 26 million people (or one of every 11) who received benefits in 2007. A new report says more Americans will rely on food stamps through 2014.

CBO | An Overview of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to Open Nov. 1 in Pennsylvania

How's this for hope and change? Despite trillions of dollars in new government spending, the poverty rate in America has soared under Barack Obama.

Study: 1 in 5 American children lives in poverty

From a new column by Ken McIntyre at National Review Online:

Census officials continue to grossly exaggerate the numbers of the poor, creating a false picture in the public mind of widespread material deprivation, writes Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Robert Rector in a new paper.

"Most news stories on poverty feature homeless families, people living in crumbling shacks, or lines of the downtrodden eating in soup kitchens," Rector says. "The actual living conditions of America’s poor are far different from these images."

Read the full column at the link below:

Modern Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox - By Ken McIntyre - The Corner - National Review Online

Research Shows Marriage Reduces Childhood Poverty by Two-Thirds

Another look inside Obama's America ... and it's not a pretty picture.

One in Six Seniors Lives in Poverty, New Analysis Finds

Amazing how things get worse for the poor despite four years of Congressional control by Democrats. It does not appear the Dems have done much to help the people they claim to represent.

New Report: Hunger Reaches Record High

Rep. Joe Pitts, who represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, released a statement today in response to new government numbers that show nearly 44 million Americans are living in poverty. That's 1 in 7 Americans. How's that for hope and change? The poverty rate leaped to 14.3 percent last year, the highest rate since 1994.

Rep. Pitts' statement follows:

"This underscores that this recession is not just about banks, bureaucrats, and statistics. I've seen the effects of increased poverty first-hand as I've visited food banks throughout the district. Real people are hurting and there should be no margin for error in our efforts to help people, revive the economy, and create jobs.

"Washington's response to the recession has so far been ideological, partisan, and ineffective. Good ideas have been ignored while Congress has been distracted by other fights that should have waited. This is the No. 1 reason Americans are so angry right now."

The full report is available at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf

The non-partisan Stateline.org offers a grim look at life in these United States during the Obama era:

More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program's almost 50-year history.

Evidence of rising economic hardship is ample. There's one commonly used standard for measuring it: the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty rate. It guides much of federal and state spending aimed at helping those unable to make a decent living.

But a number of states have become convinced that the federal figures actually understate poverty, and have begun using different criteria in operating state-based social programs. At the same time, conservative economists are warning that a change in the formula to a threshold that counts more people as poor could lead to an unacceptable increase in the cost of federal and state social service programs.

When Census publishes new numbers for 2009 in September, experts predict they'll show a steep rise in the poverty rate. One independent researcher estimates the data will show the biggest year-to-year increase in recorded history.

Read the full story at the link below:

More poverty by any measure

I hope Gov. Ed Rendell and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. are having a good time in the Mile High City.

It sounded like they were enjoying themselves Tuesday when both spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Rendell and Casey, who collectively have held public office for more than 50 years, took a lot of shots at President Bush and Republicans.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual survey measuring poverty and health insurance coverage.

The poverty level remained unchanged in 2007 and the number of uninsured Americans declined by 1.3 million in 2007. There was no mention of the report at the convention because Democrats keep harping about poverty and health coverage. They wouldn't want a dose of reality messing up their tired rhetoric.

But I do have a couple of questions for Gov. Rendell and Sen. Casey.

The Census Bureau reported that the 11.6 percent of Pennsylvania residents are living below the poverty level. How can that be when we've had such stellar leadership under Rendell and Casey?

Rendell has increased state spending by $8 billion since he took office in 2003. Where did that money go? Why wasn't it used to help bring more Pennsylvanians out of poverty?

The Census Bureau listed the median income in Pennsylvania at $48,576. The national average is $50,740. Pennsylvania ranks No. 26 in the nation. Why do Pennsylvania families earn less than the national median? If Rendell and Casey are champions of the working people (as they frequently remind us), why are so many Pennsylvanians struggling?

Rendell says there are 800,000 Pennsylvanians without health care coverage. The number of uninsured Pennsylvanians has grown each year Rendell has been in office. Yet he has failed to reduce that number since taking office in 2003. If it's such a crisis, why hasn't Rendell given the matter a greater priority?

Just wondering.

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report today showing the number of uninsured Americans declined in 2007.

While that's good news for the nation, it's bad news for the Democratic Party, which is making government-mandated health coverage (aka universal health care) a key issue in the presidential race.

The second bit of good news from the Census Bureau is that the poverty rate in the U.S. was unchanged in 2007. Again, this is bad news for Democrats, who continue to use class warfare as a wedge issue. (Do I need to remind you of John Edwards' poverty tour or his "two Americas" rhetoric?)

The Census Bureau reported that the number of uninsured Americans dropped by 1.3 million people in 2007.

The uninsured numbers dropped significantly, from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007, according to the Census Bureau. (Those numbers include an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.)

The poverty rate for 2007 was 12.5 percent, not statistically different from the 12.3 percent registered in 2006.

More good news in the report: The median — or midpoint — household income in the U.S. rose slightly to $50,233.

Democrats will bash the Bush administration during their convention in Denver this week and the story about the decline in the uninsured and poverty rate will be buried deep inside most newspapers.

You can bet that had the news been bad, you'd find it on the front page of your local newspaper or leading the evening news.

You can read the full report at the Census Bureau's Web site, http://www.census.gov/