US poor face economic hit as shutdown, childcare cliff, student loans converge
US poor face economic hit as shutdown, childcare cliff, student loans converge
Lower income households and Black and Latino communities will be hit hard when a confluence of U.S. economic events kick off next week, including a sharp drop in childcare funding, economists, analysts and government officials said.
About 12.4%, some 41 million, of the U.S.'s 333 million people live at or below the poverty line, the Census Bureau calculates, which is set at about $29,678 for a household of two adults and two chidren.
That rate fell to a record low in 2021 thanks to COVID-19 federal support, but has jumped as these programs expired.
Hardline Republicans in the House have rejected a deal the Republican-led House negotiated with U.S. President Joe Biden in May for $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2024, paving the way for wide swaths of the government to shut down for the fourth time in a decade.
We fucking hate the poor in the US don't we?
What a cruel stupid country.
We did declare war on them
Looks like republicans are going to blame democrats for this crisis, looks like this will help them in 2024, looks like it will result in republican victories as it always does. >!even though it's their fault, like almost always 🤦!<
The Republicans lost the presidency, the house, and the senate in 2020 following the 2018 shutdowns.
Don't be so quick to think this helps them in the slightest.
True, but it might be a tossup whether that was voting against Trump's party or voting against the party that caused the shutdown. I do hope you're right though, fingers crossed!
Even most of the Republicans think a shutdown will hurt them
It's a pretty hard case to make. This isn't even Republicans in general; it's a handful of absolute lunatics in the House that the rest of them don't even like. Everyone saw the clown show when McCarthy was nominated for Speaker, and this is an obvious continuation of that.
Dont forget the millions of Americans not allowed to get any help with health insurance, because theyre too poor to qualify for it.
Stop being poor for fuck sake. We got proxy wars and corporations to feed.
A shutdown could cause a rapid loss of food benefits for nearly 7 million low-income women and children on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infacts and Children, or WIC, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
But don't worry, the Pentagon is exempting Ukraine operations from the government shutdown.
Really shows the priorities of this country.
And Congress will still be paid don't forget that.
This is constitutionally required as per the 27th Amendment.
The optics are gross, admittedly, but it would literally violate the Constitution to suspend their pay. It also does neuter a potential strategy of a coalition of wealthy Congress critters simply doing nothing as an intentional effort to cut off their opponents' income and pressure their direct personal finances.
This probably wasn't a consideration during the drafting of the amendment, but it's not as if we're going to be touching the Constitution any time soon, so here we are.
Would you prefer the Pentagon stop operating?
The entire thing is stupid, but there's one party that's squarely responsible for this. Go ask the House GOP why they don't care about halting SNAP payments, but I don't see how enabling Russia to slaughter more Ukrainians would be better.
The machine must be fed. No matter what happens, the machine feeds.
At some point replacement cogs are going to start running low.
Thanks #GOP!