American Poverty Increases

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Government records reveal that the number of poor in the United States has increased - Or at least that is what the liberal left wants you to believe.

All of those poor underpriveged people, they will tell you. Without the government they'd be extra miserable.

In reality, the left is constantly trying to get as many people as they can to become dependent upon the government. Dependence equals control. . . and votes.

The numbers indicate that one in six are below the poverty level, making the grand total of poor people in the United States 46.2 million people - with an income below $22,314 per year for a family of four.

The plan to make as many people dependent on entitlements - also known as vote buying - is working, the democrats must think. The number of the poor is rising out of control - those poor poor people - they need government so badly.

In other words, the Middle Class is being destroyed by Obama. The democrats want two classes. The political elite, and those dependent upon government.

These numbers are being revealed also with the election in mind. People erroneously believe the democrats are "for the people" and that if those big bad Republicans get into office, the average person will be eating cat food, and the big bad corporations will be richer than ever.

Okay, here's the "break your heart" headlines:

"Record 46.2 Million Below Poverty Line." "Twenty-two Percent of American Children Live in Poverty." "Dramatic Drop in Median Income." "Poverty Soars, Highest Since 1993."

The only thing missing is a quick camera shot of a woman screaming, "The government has got to do something!"

Through Michelle Obama, the government's trying to control your every more. Hell, she's got Happy Meals replacing their fries with apple slices, and demanding parental approval and supervision before a kid can have some french fries. I don't care if she thinks the healthy thing to do is to avoid fries - That is people's individual decision, not hers, not Obama's, not the government's.

Obama's intent is deeper, though. He's out to take down the economy, and so far he's been doing a bang-up job. By destroying the economy, more people become dependent upon the government. By making you poor, you are an easier target, and more likely to become a slave of the government.

And while the economy was still fine, the democrats convinced everyone we were in a recession, damn near willing the crash into existence - as they worked behind the scenes with their idiotic programs that led to the crash.

Crisis. Obama got elected promising to fix a crisis. After all, as Rahm Emanuel said, in a crisis it enables them to do the things they can't normally do. But Obama didn't fix anything. He made the crisis worse. He redistributed the wealth, and as a result the number of millionaires in the country has dropped, and the number of the poor has increased.

Liberals are angry because things got worse, and it reveals liberalism to be the failure that it is. The democrats are angry because they are running out of people to blame. Obama is fine with it, because he is fundamentally changing America by destroying the system.

And according to new census data released Tuesday, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, its highest level since 1993.

46.2 million people are now considered to be in poverty, 2.6 million more than last year.

We were told the recession was over, and we are in recovery, yet things are getting worse, and now there are more poor than ever.

We are in more misery than when Carter was president.

So what does the poor get for being in poverty? How horrible are their lives as they are forced to receive freebies from the government? How miserably do these freeloaders live?

Or as Rush Limbaugh indicated, based on Heritage Foundation research: Just what is poverty in America? What do the poor in this country not have, and what do they have? And you'll be surprised if you've not heard this before.

RUSH: "In his address to the joint session of Congress last week, President Barack Obama called for $477 billion in new federal" taxes. He says "spending," but it's $477 billion in taxes "which he said would give hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people hope and dignity while giving their low-income parents 'ladders out of poverty.' And today, the U.S. Census released its annual poverty report, which declared that 46.2 million persons, or roughly one in seven Americans, were poor in 2010. What President Obama didn't tell America as he was pleading for more spending ... is what it really means to be poor in America. In a new report, Heritage's Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. government's own facts and figures really say about poverty in the United States.

"The results might surprise you, especially if your view of poverty is the conventional one, perpetuated by the media -- namely, destitute conditions of homelessness and hunger. In reality, though, the living conditions of those defined as poor by the government are much different than that popular image. The following are facts about persons defined as 'poor' by the Census Bureau." Are you ready? "80% of poor households have air conditioning. Nearly [75%] three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31% have two or more cars or trucks. Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television," which means they have TV sets, too. "Two-thirds of people [defined as poor by the Census Bureau] have at least one DVD player and 70% have a VCR."

Half of the people defined as poor by the Census Bureau "have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers. More than half of poor families with children" defend as poor by our government "have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation." More than half! . . ."43% have Internet access. One-third" of the people our government considers poor "have a wide-screen plasma or LCD television."

. . .One-fourth, 25% of the people our country defines as poor have a "digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo. As for hunger and homelessness, Rector and Sheffield point to 2009 statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing that 96% of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food, 83% of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and over the course of a year, only 4% of poor persons become temporarily homeless, with 42% of poor households actually owning their own homes." Forty-two percent of households our government categorize as poor own their own homes. Ever heard of subprime? "The average poor American has more living space than the average Swede or German," and there's even more of all these facts in their report: "Understanding Poverty in the US." This is not to say the poor have it easy, don't misunderstand this. It's all about how poor and poverty is categorized in this country versus anywhere else.

Now, Obama's brother living in the shack, that's poor.

RUSH: By the way, what percentage of poor children in America get two free meals a day at school even in the summertime? Yeah. It's an amazing thing, poverty in this country.

We got the poor. We got all these numbers on the new poor. All these people living in poverty. Numbers are way up, and yet I just told you all the stuff the poor have.

So if we say that more poor people have been created under Obama and then we say but the poor really aren't poor, then we have an interesting conflict there. Very, very, very carefully is how we must navigate this. I mean you can't complain about all the poor Obama's creating with his policies and then downplay what it is to be poor. So the way to hit this is to simply say that Obama is creating more and more people who are defined as poor in this country. The point is that Obama is creating more and more food stamp recipients, more and more unemployed, more and more homeless, and let's be honest: Why do the poor have all of this stuff? Well, yeah, government stash, but where does the government get it?

The point is that they have it because of redistribution. Many of them do not work. We could have some fun with this because you could define poor today as simply saying somebody who is dependent on the government. And if you are dependent on the government, look at all you get and look at why you're likely to vote Democrat. It is a problem. If somebody loses their job and their home, but their kids have two meals a day, the point is that Obama's policies have severely harmed that family. What Obama is doing is converting middle-class families into poor families. Now, I know some of you been waiting out there, I know, I just know you've been waiting to call me on this, "Hey wait, Limbaugh, you can't do this, you can't sit there and start claiming all these poor people and all this poverty and Obama created it and then follow it up about how it isn't so bad." And you have a point.

The point is that as our government defines poverty, Obama and his policies are putting more and more people into it. So the question then becomes, did Obama save or create more poor people? Just as we debate did Obama save or create X numbers of jobs, how many poor people did Obama save versus how many poor people did he create? Because what's happening in America is that Obama is turning middle-class families into poor families by destroying the economy. There aren't enough jobs. It's just a shame, folks, it's depressing to see what's happening to the country.

And again I stress, this is nothing compared to what our country's going to look like once Obamacare begins full implementation in 2014. Being poor today simply means being dependent on the government, which is exactly what Obama and the Democrat Party wants. The more dependent people are on the government, the more dependent they are on the Democrat Party. That's the theory. The way it shapes up here, only the very rich and the very poor can afford to be Democrat.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Poverty Rises to 1 in 6 Under Obama Administration - Arkansas GOP Wing

Nearly one in six in poverty in the U.S.; children hit hard, Census says - Washington Post

Doubling Down on Marxism - FrontPageMag

Morning Bell: Surprising Facts about America’s Poor - Heritage Foundation

Comprehensive List of Obama Tax Hikes - Americans for Tax Reform

Headlines From ObamaVille - Rush Limbaugh

This Way To The Poor House - Tea Party Nation