With pandemic-era assistance at an end in the United States, child poverty reportedly rose from 5.4 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022, according to Census data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.
Some of the assistance that helped curtail child poverty in the U.S. during the pandemic included the end of Medicaid rules that protected recipients from administrative errors, rental assistance policies, and a pause in student loan payments which are set to resume by the end of the year if they haven’t already for some borrowers. However, the biggest contributing factor to the child poverty hike last year was the end of the Child Tax Credits that provided families with a $300 check per child and with that broadened eligibility for the program. Likewise, food insecurity also dropped dramatically after just the first extended payment with 10.7 million households reporting they didn’t have enough food to 7.4 million according to Mother Jones.
So who’s to blame?
The same people as always, politicians in Washington, specifically Republicans and “democratic” Senator Joe Manchin who did their very best to stand in the way of Joe Biden’s agenda on Capitol Hill. This included taking money away from millions of children across the United States who depended on it for food, clothes, and medical care while instead lining their own pockets and the pockets of their donors with increased military budgets. Remember it was Joe Manchin who said in private that parents were going to use the money received from the Child Tax credit to buy drugs.
Don’t let Democrats off the hook though. Their inertia toward the Republicans and Joe Manchin has made them complacent in all of this. Not one time did they even threaten to back a progressive challenger to Manchin or use the bully pulpit from the White House. Also, don’t count on them using attack ads during the election season highlighting to families just what was taken away from their kids.
