A recent report that the use of food stamps among the American people has jumped 70 percent over the past four years was disturbing, to say the least.
But now, a comprehensive federal review of poverty in the United States suggests that millions more Americans are living in poverty than an estimate from just a couple of months ago indicated.
In September, the federal government released the official poverty rate for 2010: 15.1 percent.
That represented a shocking 46.2 million Americans who were living below the poverty line of about $22,300 in annual income for a family of four.
Probably no one was pleased by the thought that more than 46 million people in our nation of 312 million were facing such serious financial troubles.