Real News' War Room: Poverty and the 2012 Election

Experts and economists are predicting that the U.S. poverty level will climb toward its highest level in 50 years, which the Associated Press notes will erase "gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s." Upon the release of census figures for 2011 this November, and to the reelection campaign's chagrin, authorities across the political spectrum expect a rise in the official poverty rate from 15.1 percent in 2010 to as high as 15.7 percent.

While there has been a great focus on the wealth of Mitt Romney and a subdued yet continued discussion of income inequality that the Occupy Wall Street movement emphasized in 2011, the issue of poverty has not been as prevalent on the campaign trail of late. The lack of attention given to rising poverty from Democrats, where the issue holds symbolic importance with the party's liberal base, might have to do with the ineffective polices from the Obama administration to curbing the problem.

On 'Real News' Tuesday the panel discussed the rising poverty rate and what it says politically; on an ideological level and for the remainder of the 2012 campaign season.

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