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.
There's absolutely nothing the democrats could have to prevent this. It just wasn't possible. If they had dared to try instead of talking about the importance of a strong republican party and the importance of compromise the parliamentarian would have immediately impeached Biden.
Make sure you vote blue no matter who. They'll definitely do something next time
Joe Mansion and Christian Cinema are just this administration's Joe Liberalman. Aw beans, we wanted to do a good thing, but this one guy is gumming up the works! If only there was something we could do...
... like kick him off his committees. Pull his funding. Pull his endorsements. Revoke his party membership. Revoke federal contracts and close military bases in his state. Anything. Literally just change the rules! The Senate can do that!
And that's just moral, ethical, rules-and-order-and-norms stuff they could do. There's plenty of evil (but perfectly legal) shit the President can do. Pull Mansion or Sinema into the back of The Beast, and show them some live footage of a predator drone flying over their houses. Remember, Obama established that you can drone strike US citizens if you're the President!
What about John Cornyn, Kevin Cramer, Deb Fischer, Cindy Hyde-Smith, James Lankford, Jim Risch, Roger Wicker, and all the other Republicans?
Yes, Manchin voted with them instead of with the Democrats, but ultimately it was almost entirely Republicans who voted to end the child tax credit. I can't see any reason why he deserves more blame than them.
You can thank all these dumbfuck democrats. they'll get whatever scapegoat they need to NOT do something good, and then try to guilt you into voting for them again next time around. and the children will still go hungry. jesus fucking christ
Democrats are useless bureaucrats who will never do anything good. Servants of the capitalist class, all of them, including the supposedly good ones like AOC.
Joe Biden owes me another stimulus check. Joe Biden owes me $20,000 in student debt relief.
Abolish the American capitalist class and immediately stop their ruthless destruction of lives and planet Earth
As a Liberal I would like to thank Joe Manchin for absorbing all the anger that would otherwise be directed at the entire democratic party like a tortured idol from a Dark Souls game.
Thank you Democrats for diffusing public anger the way any adults in the room would; for protecting my investments in 14,000 empty single family homes in upstate New York.
Please consider my proposal for Green solar powered benches that electrify after 10pm to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them. This would increase our property values even further. We truly are Better Together™
So lets take it back. Strike up some legislation and lets get signatures. Keep calling your senators and tell them you want social safety nets, and to reinstate the child tax credit to covid-era functionality. Don't stop. Breath down these peoples' necks every day. Make them fear you will enter their home.
Can we fucking defederate from hexbear already? I'm so tired of these tween shitheads having the worst informed hot takes and trolling. Generally, I don't mind a good trolling, I can appreciate the humor of it, but these guys don't have any. They're just fucking Edge Lords for the sake of it. Be gone