With no end in sight to America's economic woes, which are deepened by the setbacks and hold-ups in Washington, the incidence of poverty is increasing at an alarming rate.

New data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows the country's poverty rate in 2010 rose to 15.1 percent of the population, affecting more than 46 million Americans or one out of every six Americans.

The current definition of poverty in America refers to a family of four with an annual income of $22,314 ($5,578.50 per family member) or less.

According to The U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States 2010 report, the number of Americans living in poverty in 2010 increased by 2.6 million from 43.9 million in 2009. This is the fourth consecutive annual increase in the nation's poverty rate and the largest in 52 years or since poverty estimates have been published. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points, the report said.

The poverty rate among the Black population stood at 27.4 percent, an increase from 25.8 percent in 2009.

Seragh Lasing, a community social worker in the South West Miami Dade community of Goulds, Homestead and Florida City, says that the incidence of poverty in the region is "utterly unbelievable and despicable," especially among African- and Hispanic Americans (especially from Central America).

Lasing says mothers are "at their wits end" trying to feed their children, not to mention themselves. He says he has seen grown men shedding tears having no money to feed their families or afford suitable shelter. "Come on man, this is America, not some Third World country. There shouldn't be all this poverty. What is really the government's role in easing this serious poverty?" he asked.

Also disconcerting, and an indication that the average middle class American family is earning less income, the report stated that the annual median household income (the average earned by employed members of a household) had declined by 2.3 percent to $49,445 in 2010 over the 2009 median. Since 2007, the nation's real median household income has declined 6.4 percent. In 2009, a similar report revealed the annual median income of Black Households was $32,584, declining by 4.4 percent from 2008. However, in 2010 this income declined by another 3.2 percent to $31,541. When household income diminishes, families spend less – a factor that negates economic growth.

A staff member at a Department of Children and Family (DCF) office says she is seeing more application than usual for assistance "among so-called middle class families even for food stamps."

"Poverty is definitely creeping up," she said.

This rise in poverty, now creeping firmly into the nation's middle class, is another pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to provide urgent solutions to the national economic problem. Policies are needed to generate public (even if this risks increasing the national deficit) and private spending to generate employment, boost retail sales, open credit windows and reverse the upward trend in poverty.

In spite of all the raging criticisms against the Obama administration's healthcare law, the report showed the number of people without health insurance in 2010 increased by almost one million from 49 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010. The rate of uninsured Blacks was 20.8 percent, virtually unchanged from 21 percent in 2009.

The Southern U.S. (including Florida) was the only region to show increases in both the poverty rate and the number in poverty – 16.9 percent and 19.1 million in 2010, up from 15.7 percent and 17.6 million in 2009. The south had the highest regional poverty rate.