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One last point about the new poverty numbers, which is that they show that elderly poverty remains a major problem in the United States.

Conventional wisdom holds that seniors are doing just fine in the U.S. and that this is one area where the war on poverty was a big success. Well, not quite. Yes, elderly poverty rates are way down from forty years ago thanks to increased Social Security payments and government health programs.

As we continue to mine the new poverty statistics over here from the Census Bureau, here is a statistics that many people will find surprising: The poverty rate for naturalized U.S. citizens is 10.8 percent, while that for native born Americans is 13.7 percent. (The figure for foreign born residents is a very high 25.1 percent.)

For decades we've been hearing that government spending helps to cause poverty by keeping people dependent and by depressing economic growth.

This is not only nonsense, but new Census data shows that the exact opposite is true: Poverty tends to be higher in those states with small government.

It's hardly news when House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan distorts the facts about fiscal policy -- his supposed area of expertise -- but it still surprises me nonetheless.

Consider this whopper from a recent interview:

A photo voter ID law signed by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is unnecessary, unfair, restrictive and intentionally discriminates against African-American and Latino voters, a coalition of civil rights groups will argue in a letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday.

Incredibly enough, Social Security -- long considered a third rail of politics -- has become a ferocious touchstone during this Presidential primary cycle, even with the Iowa Caucus still a half-year away.

A long overdue debate on tax reform is now underway. Yesterday, White House aides said they hoped to pay for the President's $450 billion jobs plan by sharply limiting tax deductions for upper income Americans.

In the wake of disasters across the Midwest, most of the entire east coast and at least 30,000 acres of Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief fund has dipped below $550 million. Unfortunately, its continued solvency is at the mercy of Congress.