The following is by John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Read the full version of his column is at L&M Partnership .

The U.S. Census Bureau released new measures of poverty in November. According to the New York Times , “All told 100 million people – one in three Americans – either live in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it.”

When the U.S. Census Bureau retooled its formula for determining the number of poor people living in the United States, the number the bureau estimated to be living in poverty shot up from 46.1 million to 49.1 million. Now that reformulation is shining a light on the vast numbers of people who appear to be middle class but who actually fall into a category called the “near poor.”

When the U.S. Census Bureau updated its model for calculating the nation’s poverty rate, it arrived at an unexpected result: nearly twice as many older Americans qualify as poor than had been previously thought. The new data suggest that 16 percent of those 65 and older are poor. Under the old formula, which failed to accurately reflect housing and medical costs, the poverty rate for older Americans stood at 9 percent.

AFT President Randi Weingarten urged President Obama to “help marshal the humanitarian aid needed to halt the advance of the apocalyptic ‘children’s famine’ spreading through Somalia and neighboring nations in the Horn of Africa.”

More troubling news on the downward economic spiral of America’s working families. In 2010, median household income declined and the poverty rate increased, according to  U.S. Census Bureau data  announced this morning.

How appropriate. We’re drowning in rain here in the nation’s capital, while outside the Beltway, America’s working families are drowning in one disastrous economic wave after another. A few recent nuggets.

The recession is hurting America’s children today and could have a negative impact on their future as well, according to two new reports. A survey of child welfare released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009. As a result, 14.7 million children, or 20 percent, were poor in 2009. That represents a 2.5 million increase from 2000, when 17 percent of the nation’s youth lived in low-income homes. Read the survey here .

Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s proposed budget is ”tantamount to a form of class warfare ,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ( CBPP ). If enacted, “it could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history.

Manny Herrmann, AFL-CIO online mobilization coordinator, details the extent to which the Republican budget proposal would hurt working families.

Pop Quiz: What would America look like under Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) radical tea party-inspired budget?

America is slowly recovering from the Great Recession and long-term economic growth depends on how well we integrate the poor and people of color into the mainstream economy, according to a brand new report.