It’s hard work being poor in America. Forget about the stereotype of lazy folks grabbing government handouts that are paid for by those who are self-reliant and industrious. The truth is that millions of poor people work full time, but their wages are so low that a 40-hour week isn’t enough to lift them out of poverty. Imagine supporting your family on just $14,500 a year. That’s what a full-time, minimum-wage job pays. Wages come to less than $279 a week—and that’s before payroll taxes.

Americans across the country are bracing for the impact of the sequester, the automatic across-the-board spending cuts to domestic programs—including vital human-needs services—set for this Friday, March 1. The nation faces dire consequences should these cuts take effect, but it’s even worse for low-income women and their families suffering from domestic violence.

If Congress fails to act, on March 1, a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts known as the “sequester” will hit several key programs that serve individuals with disabilities. Cutting the deficit on the backs of the most vulnerable goes against our core values as Americans, and it will cost us more in the long term to disinvest from fellow members of society by not providing them the necessary tools to excel.

Unless Congress acts, on March 1 automatic and indiscriminate spending cuts will hit key programs, costing our economy more than 1 million jobs and cutting essential services for millions of low- and middle-income families. Congress can act to avert these cuts by taking a more balanced approach to deficit reduction that eliminates wasteful tax loopholes that only benefit a wealthy few.

In the lead-up to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, activists across the country took to Twitter, reaching 2.11 million followers using the #TalkPoverty hashtag, to encourage the president to address the issue of poverty and propose bold solutions. The president didn’t disappoint. Tuesday night, President Obama laid out an audacious vision for moving our country and our economy forward in a way that will promote shared prosperity and bring millions of struggling families into the American middle class.

Not only does the earned income tax credit keep millions of working families from slipping into poverty each year, it also leads to positive outcomes for family health and student education. Earned income tax credit dollars benefit our economy, and most families who receive the credit end up paying billions of dollars more in net federal income tax than they receive in the earned income tax credit over time.

Andrea Mitchell covers the new report released on Monday from the “Half-in-Ten” campaign, outlining where the U.S. is falling short in fixing its poverty problem and how it can take big steps toward a solution. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, joins in the discussion.

There were nearly 50 million Americans living in poverty in 2011, under an alternative measure released by the Census Bureau Wednesday. That’s 16.1% of the nation, higher than the official poverty rate of 15%. The official rate, released in September, showed 46.6 million people living in poverty.

Congress is currently considering the fate of many critical programs for low-income Americans in the year-end fiscal showdown, widely known as the “fiscal cliff.” As lawmakers debate the future of these programs, the U.S. Census Bureau today released important new data on poverty and hardship that should inform Congress’s decisions about a balanced approach to deficit reduction and tax reform.

On the eve of the second presidential debate, Obama broke his silence. Romney declined to answer, according to an e-mail sent to the coalition in late September. But Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan devoted an entire speech to poverty yesterday in Cleveland. Unfortunately, anti-poverty advocates were not impressed. Katie Wright, research assistant with Half in Ten, is cited, saying ” Rep. Ryan stuck to conservative rhetoric that paints safety net programs as the problem rather than as the essential support for struggling families who fall on hard times.”