46 million Americans live in poverty...and Congress is busy doing what? Blocking the American Jobs Act!

The U.S. poverty rate remains among the highest in the developed world.  Congress you are not doing your job!!!

The worst economic downturn since the 1930s has left a record number of Americans in poverty and created strains on the government’s safety net not seen in decades, according to a report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.


“Clearly the safety net has helped, but it’s got holes in it,” said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former White House economist.

With the unemployment rate stuck stubbornly over 9 percent, the poverty rate in the United States climbed to 15.1 percent last year — the highest level since 1993 — as the number of impoverished Americans swelled to a record 46.2 million, the Census report said.

The U.S. poverty rate remains among the highest in the developed world. Among 34 countries tracked by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only Chile, Israel and Mexico have higher rates of poverty.

The rate would be even higher without a variety of government programs intended to blunt the impact of the worst recession since the 1930s. The Census estimated that the extension of unemployment benefits enacted in 2009, for example, helped another 3.2 million remain above the poverty line, which the government defines as an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four. Last year, the Social Security helped some 20.3 million seniors and disabled working-age adults avoid falling into of poverty.

Millions more households are collecting food stamps to stretch household budgets far enough to keep food on the table. Since the recession began in 2007, the number of households receiving food stamps has nearly doubled to 21.4 million.

Still, millions have fallen through the cracks of the government safety net. Tuesday's Census report found that the poverty rate rose faster in 2007-2010 than in any three-year period since the early 1980s, when households were battered by rising energy prices, high inflation and soaring interest rates as well as high unemployment.