Data which demonstrate increasing poverty in the United States are collected in this report. Following a brief introduction, six sections present information to support these major findings: (1) Today there is a growing trend toward income disparity between rich and poor. Americans of moderate incomes as well as those classified as poor have lost ground, while wealthy Americans have surged ahead. (2) Poverty is more extensive today than it has been for quite some time: the poverty rates for each of the past three years have been well above the poverty rates of the 1970s and higher than those for any year since the mid-1960s. (3) The belief that the poor are a distinct group who live in poverty much of their lives is false. In fact, large numbers of Americans are poor, or can expect to be poor, at some time in their lives. (4) Major reductions in Federal domestic programs since 1980 have disproportionately affected those with low or moderate incomes and have contributed to the rise in poverty. (5) The 1980s budget cuts were made in programs that were already inadequate. Federal benefit programs have large gaps, fail to reach millions who are poor, and provide benefit levels that, in most cases, fall well below the poverty line. (6) In a time of support program reductions, those with low and moderate incomes have had to face the additional burden of rapidly rising costs for basic necessities as well as higher taxes. An appendix contains a discussion of the ongoing debate over whether food stamps and other non-cash benefits should be included in the poverty count. (KH)