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.
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Because of it’s truth?
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what the hell is the point of holding a seat if the guy holding it does whatever he wants.
West Virginia has gotten more and more conservative over time. It used to be more of a blue state. In 2020, Trump got double the votes that Biden did. Manchin is going to struggle to hold the seat if he runs again, let alone some left wing upstart without name recognition who is poorly matched to the state’s politics.
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Joe Manchin is conservative for a Democrat, but he is no Republican. Any replacement will be a right wing Republican that the Democratic Party has no influence over. Manchin highlights his independence from either party. A replacement would highlight their mindless opposition to any proposal by the left or Democrats.
WV was a blue state because unions. When Dems started attacking the largest union industries in the state, and started emphasizing identity politics over labor that was pretty much it.
yes. the democrats are so good at protecting marginalized peoples. that is clearly where their effort goes. just ask anyone trans who lives in joe biden’s america how much fun they’re having~
actually I disagree with the existence of stupidpol and patsoc types
By not conrinuing to support and fund them.
By doing literally anything.
But anytime anybody says that we get a lecture on how dems have to keep supporting him otherwise he’d do the exact same things as a republican.
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Speaking as a non-american, the only way to avoid burgerlands nosedive into fascism would take so much more work and would definitely involve losing the senate. To me, you have to completely remake the Supreme Court and senate, and part of that is to always attack them and their legitimacy. Every democratic spokesperson should be bring up how corrupt and unaccountable these institutions are
Like, open up criminal cases against Clarence Thomas and Alito over their corruption. Same with manchin. Every one of these ghouls have done criminal acts. Even if you don’t win the court cases (and you won’t), you’ve dragged these peoples names into the mud and will help expose the flaws in both Congress and the courts. Get a majority of people mad enough that they shut down the country through strikes and demonstrations and you’ll suddenly find the remaining judges and congresspeople a lot more amenable.
Now, you’ll have thought up a ton of reasons why this won’t work. So have I, and the major reason to me is that most of the democrats are the same kind of garbage as the republicans, along with Americans being incredibly docile except when they’re murdering each other plus a million other reasons. So fuck both parties, vote or don’t, I don’t really care, but don’t expect me to be impressed by joe Biden
Ok here’s some actual examples.
Take him off all committees stop giving him any money or support for relecrions and start closing military bases in his state.
Why are Democrats giving money to “Democrats” who won’t support their agenda? Why did the DNC support Manchin and Sinema financially, but actually give money to Republicans over Progressive Democrats? You can’t be against Fascists, but still financially support them over Social Democrats…An unemotional look at the DNC’s behaviour shows that even if you got 70 Senators, the things we want would not get done. The Democrats are closer to the Republicans than any Socialist/ Communist/Anarchist in here…
Lmao
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Did Biden fight tooth and nail to push through his agenda? Nope.
So it’s completely reasonable to say that Biden allowed childhood poverty to double under his watch.
What can we do Jack, if we had to change the rules of the senate to allow majority votes then we might be able to do something
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idk but the GOP seems to have no problem getting their entire party to vote as a single bloc so it can’t be that hard.
Sure. Democrats just have to become a party of rigid ideological purity instead of the big tent party they’ve been for a hundred years.
If you think Republicans can sustain that behavior, I invite you to pay attention to the way they’re eating each other in the House right now.
Actually political parties can and should enforce political discipline on their members, and there should be reprisals for going against the party and its leadership.
But the reality is, letting Manchin trash this legislation is probably more the plan than an opposition to it
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You sound like you want a Mafia family, not a government…
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You’ve just described grounds for impeachment and removal of the president. The full House and Senate would turn on them at that point.
LBJ certainly found a way
Easy. Threaten them. Remove them from committees. Cut their funding from DNC. Many many things could have been done.
You would learn more if instead of asking “what could they have done” but instead asking “why didn’t they do anything”.
They didn’t do anything.
you can tell how little attention Democratic Party apologists like this pay attention to the Democrats, because they never seem to see any of the absolutely dirty tricks they pull against popular progressives to enforce discipline, that are somehow never ever deployed against these sineating right-wing assholes like Sinema and Manchin.
In order to hit the rule of three you included “you still have your opinion even after I called someone else stupid” for your reasons why someone’s comment was stupid.
The Biden administration has overseen the sharpest rise in child poverty in America in decades. It’s the responsibility of the governing party to figure out how to get results, not how to take a feels-good position.