Poverty numbers are up. There’s no denying it. The Republican recession turned out to be more persistent than most thought and, their attempts to sabotage the economy for political gain have frustrated Democratic attempts to mitigate the suffering. However, there is now definitive evidence that Democrats are making a positive difference in people’s lives.

A new report from the Census Bureau points to a painful, ugly 2009 for those struggling to get by. The poverty rate jumped to 14.3% last year, its highest level in 16 years. As CNN noted, there were 43.6 million Americans in need — "the highest number in 51 years of record-keeping."

If you’re thinking it seems obscene that the biggest fight in Washington right now is over whether to give the rich yet another round of tax breaks, on the heels of a 14.3% poverty rate, then you and I are on the same page.

But as heartbreaking as the Census data is, it’s worth remembering that government spending prevented it from being even worse. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Arloc Sherman reports today that an analysis of the new survey data "shows that unemployment insurance benefits — which expanded substantially last year in response to the increased need — kept 3.3 million people out of poverty in 2009."

Sherman added, "In other words, there were 43.6 million Americans whose families were below the poverty line in 2009, according to the official poverty statistics, which count jobless benefits as part of families’ income. But if you don’t count jobless benefits, 46.9 million Americans were poor."

And this is just UI. It’s hard to calculate, but imagine what the poverty rate would have been without the Recovery Act, too… [emphasis added]