US Poverty rate rises for fourth straight year

But-- those tax cuts were all about helping out ordinary Americans, right? It's obvious that we need to do more. Repeal the Paris Hilton tax, immediately!

An extra 1.1 million Americans dropped below the poverty line last year, according to the US Census Bureau.

There were 37 million people living in poverty in 2004, up 12.7% from the previous year.

The report said non-Hispanic whites were the only ethnic group to experience an increase in poverty as well as a drop in income.

The real culprit, as you might notice in that last sentence, is that newly available jobs pay less with fewer benefits. Good jobs are becoming increasingly scarce.