This morning, the Census Bureau released its latest income and poverty data, showing that the poverty rate declined from 14.8 percent in 2014 to 13.5 percent in 2015. That means that 3.5 million fewer Americans lived in poverty in 2015. The poverty rate for children also dropped from 21.1 percent to 19.7 percent. This is encouraging news indeed. But, we cannot celebrate when 1 in 10 US households had incomes below $13,300 last year. When one in seven Americans still live below the federal poverty line (just over $24,000 for a family of four). When almost one in five American children are living in poverty.
Instead, we must act!