PRESTOPUNDIT

Compared with 1990, there were actually 700,000 fewer non-Hispanic whites in poverty last year. Among blacks, the drop since 1990 is between 700,000 and 1 million .. Meanwhile, the number of poor Hispanics is up by 3 million since 1990 ..

there's no mystery here. If more poor and unskilled people enter the country — and have children — there will be more poverty. (The Census figures cover both legal and illegal immigrants; estimates of illegals range upward from 7 million.) About 33 percent of all immigrants .. lack a high-school education .. if the poverty persists — and is compounded by more immigration — then it will create mounting political and social problems. One possibility: a growing competition for government benefits between the poor and baby-boom retirees.