US Child Poverty Doubled In 2022, Thanks To Joe Manchin. We Must Reverse Course
The Guardian, Katrina Venden Heuvel, Dec. 20, 2023. Ed. - A bipartisan coalition is growing on Capitol Hill to bring back the expanded child tax credit. America’s children desperately need it.
Legislators are fleeing Washington, DC and heading home for the holidays. 🌲
They leave behind a dysfunctional Congress with a rookie Speaker, brutal wars ongoing overseas, and a country with 11 million children living in poverty. Yes, after a brief reprieve, child poverty is once again on the rise in the US. But Congress can put a stop to that. As members of both houses, and both parties, work together on an end-of-year tax deal, they can re-implement a simple, wildly popular measure that has already proven to dramatically reduce child poverty: the expanded Child Tax Credit.
As Nelson Mandela said, “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings.”
Child poverty is not an individual choice, it is a collective choice—and just as we choose to perpetuate it, we can choose to abolish it. After all, just a few years ago, Congress chose to do something about it, and it’s time to make that choice again—this time for good. In 2021, the American Rescue Plan significantly expanded the child tax credit, increasing payments by up to $1,600, paying out the credit monthly, and expanding eligibility to include more families in need. The result was nothing short of miraculous.
The expanded credit lifted 2.9 million children out of poverty, provided a crucial lifeline to families during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and brought the US child poverty rate to the lowest level ever recorded. It was one of the most successful policy decisions our government has made in decades. - Enter Joe Manchin. Last Dec., the WVa senator, houseboat enthusiast, & Maserati collector reportedly refused to extend the credit because—per private comments—he believed low-income parents would spend it on drugs instead of feeding their children.
This was despite a Census Bureau survey released just months earlier that proved over 90% of families were spending the money on food, shelter, and school supplies for their kids. And it was despite acute poverty in his home state, where the tax credit helped more than 300,000 children in 2021. But Manchin refused to extend the expansion, & Senate Republicans did nothing to help. It lapsed at the end of 2021, leading to an immediate, massive increase in child poverty in 2022, doubling from 5.2% to 12.4%. Now 11 million children live in poverty, & 19 million receive less than the full tax credit because their parents don’t make enough money... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/20/us-child-poverty-doubled-in-2022-thanks-to-joe-manchin-we-must-reverse-course
- Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations
