The staggering rise follows the GOP and Manchin's crusade to kill the expanded child care credit.

The United States’ poverty rate experienced its largest one-year jump on record last year, with the rate among children more than doubling from 2021’s historic low of 5.2 percent to 12.4 percent according to new numbers from the US Census Bureau out today. They’re the latest data to reflect the devastating effects following the expiration of nearly all pandemic-era relief programs. That includes the end of Medicaid rules that protected recipients from getting kicked off because of administrative errors, an end to rental assistance policies, and the restart of student loan payments.

These policies might seem like a distant memory at this point. But they’re worth recalling with the arrival of every new report. Each demonstrates what happens when politicians long hostile to caregivers, universal health care, and the welfare state, for a brief moment, acted to create powerful, federally-backed safety net programs aimed at helping everyday Americans. One of the most effective programs to emerge was the expansion of the child tax credit, which provided families monthly checks of up to $300 per child and broadened eligibility rules for qualifying families. In turn, child poverty rates plummeted; the extra income allowed caregivers to quit grueling second and third jobs; parents were able to buy their kids decent clothes and help stop taunting at school. The Census Bureau previously reported that food insecurity dropped dramatically after just the first extended payment, from 10.7 million households reporting they didn’t have enough food to 7.4 million.

But as the pandemic receded, Republicans with the help of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who in private remarks reportedly warned that families were using the extra income to buy drugs, appeared to remember the country’s longstanding pre-pandemic hostility. Their opposition ultimately tanked President Biden’s agenda, and along with it, the brief life of the expanded child tax credit. That’s something worth remembering today as the predictable crowd is likely to cry about Democratic-engineered inflation.

  • beteljuice
    1·
    10 months ago

    Yeah see you act just like a gestapo yourself. You are implying that Ngo is a Nazi and deserves to be silenced and have violence committed against him. But he is not a Nazi. You create these vague boundaries and bundle anyone as a Nazi if it suits your purpose, even if they only associated with someone who associated with someone else that is a Nazi. Virtually everyone is 2 degrees of separation from a Nazi, so you are probably a Nazi by these absurd notions.

    Once again, free speech is a leftist stance, and people aren’t Nazis just because you don’t like them. You disingeously use this “Nazis don’t deserve free speech” because you know you will use it against everyone, Nazi or not.

    That being said, Andy Ngo is a loser and an asshole spreading the wrong ideas. Not a Nazi though.

      • beteljuice
        1·
        10 months ago

        You are disingenuous trash. Gaslighting asshole. Just say any garbage that comes to mind whether it matches reality or not.

        Typical bullshit strategy:

        1. Throw out some misinformation or half truth, like “Hitler ate Jewish babies on toast”
        2. Wait for someone to correct your bullshit, due to it being factually incorrect.
        3. Scream like a 11 year old on a middle school courtyard about “look at the Nazi defender” with emojis and all

        You are advocating censorship and violence without due process to those you disagree with. You just need to categorize someone is part of some group who is exempt from due process for some reason, and then flip out with sneering and ad hominem if anyone disagrees with your bullshit. Sounds like fascism to me.

        I’m certain I’ve done more for left wing causes than your trolling ass. You are the worst, trolls that identify as left wing and give the rest of us a bad name. You aren’t interested in facts or peace. You only care about us vs them and waging war. You probably think facts and nuanced discussion is a right wing dog whistle.

        Fuck off scum.