The ranks of America's poor remained stuck at a record level last year while household income dropped. Still, the number of people who don't have health insurance declined.

A Census Bureau report released Wednesday provided a mixed picture of the economic well-being of U.S. households for 2011 as the nation enters the final phase of a presidential election campaign in which the economy is the No. 1 issue.

The overall poverty rate stood at 15 percent, statistically unchanged from the 15.1 percent rate in the previous year. Experts had expected a rise in the poverty rate for the fourth straight year, but unemployment benefits and modest job gains helped stave that off, the bureau reported. For last year, the official poverty line was an annual income of $23,021 for a family of four.

While unemployment eased slightly from 2010 to 2011, the gap between rich and poor increased. The median, or midpoint, household income was $50,054, 1.5 percent lower than 2010 and a second straight annual decline.

In a blog post, the White House said the latest figures show that government policies can help the poor, middle class and uninsured, while more work remains to be done...

At a fundraising event in Jacksonville, FL, Obama's GOP rival for the White House, Mitt Romney, said the president "is the candidate that's pushed the middle class into poverty. We're the party of those who want a brighter, prosperous future for themselves and for their kids. We're not the party of the rich. We're the party of the people who want to get rich."

By total numbers, roughly 46.2 million people remained below the poverty line last year, unchanged from 2010. That figure was the highest in the more than half a century that records have been kept. The 15 percent poverty rate was about the same as it was in 1993 and was the highest since 1983.

Broken down by state, New Mexico had the highest share of poor people, at 22.2 percent, according to rough calculations by the Census Bureau. It was followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia. On the other end of the scale, New Hampshire had the lowest, at 7.6 percent.

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Editor's Note: And the Obama Administration insists the "recovery" has been on-going since 2009...We'd like to know what channel that movie is on...Are we ready, yet, to unhandcuff the private sector charities and houses of worship so they can help those in poverty? Or are we still stupid enough to believe that government is the answer?


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