The U.S. Census Bureau released a report today showing the number of uninsured Americans declined in 2007.

While that's good news for the nation, it's bad news for the Democratic Party, which is making government-mandated health coverage (aka universal health care) a key issue in the presidential race.

The second bit of good news from the Census Bureau is that the poverty rate in the U.S. was unchanged in 2007. Again, this is bad news for Democrats, who continue to use class warfare as a wedge issue. (Do I need to remind you of John Edwards' poverty tour or his "two Americas" rhetoric?)

The Census Bureau reported that the number of uninsured Americans dropped by 1.3 million people in 2007.

The uninsured numbers dropped significantly, from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007, according to the Census Bureau. (Those numbers include an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.)

The poverty rate for 2007 was 12.5 percent, not statistically different from the 12.3 percent registered in 2006.

More good news in the report: The median — or midpoint — household income in the U.S. rose slightly to $50,233.

Democrats will bash the Bush administration during their convention in Denver this week and the story about the decline in the uninsured and poverty rate will be buried deep inside most newspapers.

You can bet that had the news been bad, you'd find it on the front page of your local newspaper or leading the evening news.

You can read the full report at the Census Bureau's Web site, http://www.census.gov/