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@lemmy.ml
      1·
      10 months ago

      You sound like a reactionary and you haven’t been paying attention. The free speech issues have spread WELL beyond the small population of Nazis and white supremacists, but go on with your straw man… I’ve seen videos of right wing journalists of asian ethnicity being attacked due to being a “Nazi”. Everyone you don’t like is a crypto Nazi, which is why your attitude is the fascist one. Unless they claim to be a Nazi, doing salutes and wearing swastikas, then they aren’t a fucking nazi. That’s why Germany has very specific laws about this.

      • CannotSleep420English
        101·
        10 months ago

        Unless they claim to be a Nazi, doing salutes and wearing swastikas, then they aren’t a fucking nazi.

        Considering the billions the dems have sent to Ukraine, even that isn’t enough to qualify as a nazi.

      • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        91·
        10 months ago

        I’ve seen videos of right wing journalists of asian ethnicity being attacked due to being a “Nazi”.

        Are you referring to Andy “works with Atomwaffen” Ngo?

        spoiler

        milkshake

        • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
          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@lemmy.ml
              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.

        • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
          1·
          10 months ago

          I’m not defending him at all, but he is clearly not a Nazi.

          Also thanks for proving my point.

          • Flinch [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            8·
            10 months ago

            I would classify someone who provides lists of left wing protestors to neonazi terror organization Atomwaffen to be at the very least “fascist-adjacent” but that’s just me shrug-outta-hecks

            • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
              2·
              10 months ago

              I don’t think you are correct that he provided a list directly to atomwaffen. I’m open to being wrong, but could find any evidence of this.

              He met with a group that associated with Atomwaffen. So he’s fascist-adjacent-adjacent. He is a hack journalist catering to a shitty audience for money, kind of like Tim Pool or Jimmy Dore or Joe Rogan. If this is the kind of person who deserves violence and censorship then you are only proving my point further.

              Curious if you are an anarchist or believe in the rule of law. If the latter, what would be the legal boundary between people who deserve censorship and violence without due process?

              • Flinch [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
                71·
                10 months ago

                I am not going to spend effort trying to relitigate the reasons to hate a right wing grifter who collaborates with fascists. Personally, if I wanted to avoid violence, I wouldnt associate with groups that associate with Atomwaffen, but that’s just common sense shrug-outta-hecks

                • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  So much to unpack here. Not sure what country you are from, but in the US slander is already illegal, and orthogonal to fadcism.

                  And how is stochastic terrorism equivalent to radical fascist antagonism. And how would you prove stochastic terrorism? Just decide in your own and then lynch without trial? I have no idea how that would even be enforced in a legal framework. You gotta give me something here. I’m not just gonna go with twitter justice, sorry. We’ve advanced beyond medieval public stonings.

                • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  You changed your comment after I replied.

                  You also moved the goalposts. The original premise was that Nazis don’t deserve free speech or protection from violence. Now we are switching to state department propaganda, with “the terrorists, oh my!”.

                  I’m not defending anyone, so fuck off with that bullshit now. I am simply trying to establish the facts. I only brought up one person, not a multitude. I’m not aware of any violent threats that he made.

                  Fuck you types that value fighting “your enemy” over facts and understanding. I won’t be bucketed as a sympathizer or right wing just because I challenge factually inaccurate information about a shithead. It’s such a lazy disingenuous fucked up asshole thing to do, to label someone as the outgroup for disagreeing with you. Fuck you, trash.

                  But you hella moved the goalposts. You all are really proving my point that you just have vague arbitrary moving lines you draw around people you don’t like so you can act like shitheads yourselves and feel good about it.

            • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
              1·
              10 months ago

              “probably”. Ok I guess that’s good enough for violence and censorship. The point of this discussion wasn’t to determine whether he was a Nazi. You got lost. The point was that your mob justice is stupid and deadly. You can just label anyone you want then go ham open season on. them. You aren’t even sure yourself whether he’s a nazi for fuck sake.