Statistics like this in the richest nation on the planet are totally unacceptable:

The number of Americans that have trouble putting food on the table shot up last year in an unprecedented spike to a record 17 million households, the government reported on Monday.

The Department of Agriculture report, which has been released annually since 1995, said the number of Americans that were hungry rose to 14.6%. In 2007, 13 million households or 11.1% of Americans had trouble getting enough food.

The one-year jump is all the more significant, given the number of hungry Americans had never been higher than 11.9% since these surveys began.

And what do we hear from our leaders on statistics like this? Nothing but crickets. I’m not going to single out one party or another here, as the issue of hunger is non-partisan. Instead the deafening silence from Congress and the White House as a whole should be considered a crime. All they seem to worry about is their buddies on Wall Street, while turning a blind eye to the American people. Again – that is a crime.