Three new numbers have hit the news -- three unrelated numbers that add up to a sick feeling that America may not have its priorities straight.

The first is 49 million Americans, about one in six, went hungry last year. The second is 46 million do not have health insurance, at a time when health-care costs continue to soar. The third is $1 million, the estimated cost of sustaining each additional U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.

Each of these numbers describes a distinct reality. Taken together, they paint a disturbing picture of how American government takes care of its people, particularly the least advantaged.

The 49 million hungry is from a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that measured the people in 2008 who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food. The number was the highest in the 14 years that the department has tracked it -- with an increase of 13 million, or 36 percent, over the year before. The most shocking fact was that many of the households included children.

The second group, the 46 million without health-care coverage, may well be some of the same people who are going hungry. Their plight has to be seen against the disgusting spectacle of Congress, influenced by lobbyists for the drug and insurance companies and other anti-reform interests, dithering on efforts to improve health-care delivery. If Congress fails to change the horrible status quo, which Americans will see themselves without health care next year or the year after?

The $1 million it takes to keep each additional soldier in Afghanistan has to be measured against the figures on hunger and health care. The war has already cost about $300 billion. Every added block of 10,000 troops -- and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal is calling for up to 40,000 more -- means another $10 billion per year for the taxpayer. When would that end? When will the government of President Hamid Karzai, fraudulently elected and breathtakingly corrupt, become sufficiently credible for President Barack Obama to decide that Afghanistan can be left to his rule?

It is clear that the nation has choices. How would we like to use our money? To feed America's hungry and assure Americans' health care, or to fund an endless, futile war in Afghanistan? That is the trade-off. It should be obvious to Mr. Obama as well.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.