Steven Benen riffs on this great chart from the Census bureau, highlighted by Suzy Khimm.

The increase in the past decade in the poverty rate for children, shown in the blue line, now at 22 percent, is horrendous, and should be keeping policy-makers up nights. But look at the red line, the poverty rate for seniors, which has dropped from 35.2 percent in 1959 to just 9.0 percent. Benen:

[A]s of 2010, despite growing poverty throughout the economy, Khimm noted, “[O]lder Americans are even less likely to be in poverty than they were during the start of the recession. [...] [T]he poverty rate for seniors is at a record low: in 2009, it was at 8.9 percent, and it’s remained essentially flat since then.” This isn’t an accident and it’s not a fluke. Indeed, note that on the left side of the chart, as of a half-century ago, those most likely to be in poverty were seniors. So what happened? Social Security and Medicare happened. These pillars of modern American life have brought a degree of stability and economic security to millions of older people who've left the workforce.

The poverty rate for American seniors is at an all time low. Reducing poverty for seniors is, after all, the primary objective of these programs. In recognition of this simple fact, the first thing that any policy-maker should vow to do when addressing these programs is to not screw them up, to not change their basic, effective structure.