This one simple trick will help get kids out of poverty
Child poverty is bad. I think we can all agree on that, right? Americans are divided on lots of issues but it’s reasonable to suppose that, no matter where someone sits on the political spectrum, they would want kids to have enough to eat. Right?
Wrong. As it turns out an awful lot of politicians have no issue at all with kids going hungry. Last year the federal government lifted millions of American children out of poverty with the stroke of a pen when it expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC) as part of the American Recovery Plan. There was nothing particularly revolutionary about this policy: lots of rich countries provide some version of a universal child benefit. But, while it wasn’t revolutionary on a global scale, the CTC transformed the US: monthly child poverty was slashed by roughly 30%. About 3.7 million children saw their lives improve. And then, at the end of 2021, the CTC expired and congress failed to extend it. Those 3.7 million kids went hungry again; a February study found that child poverty increased by 41% in after the program expired. In short: a wildly successful policy that improved millions of people’s lives was simply chucked away.
Republicans – the party that loves loudly proclaiming how “pro-life” they are and how much they care about family values – are largely to blame for the CTC expiring. Every single Republican in congress opposed extending the CTC. Joe Manchin, a supposed Democrat, also helped kill the program; he reportedly told colleagues that he worried that parents would waste the money they were being given on drugs. Did he have any evidence for this? No, of course not. In fact, studies show that 91% of households making less than $35,000 a year used the money to pay for food, shelter, clothing and other necessities.
While Republicans and Manchin bear the bulk of the responsibility for sabotaging the CTC, there’s plenty of blame to go around. The fact that much of the media insists on describing Manchin as a “moderate”, for example, doesn’t help matters. Terminology like this helps push the idea that bowing to corporate interests is “moderate’ while helping pull kids out of poverty is “radical”; it makes it easier for people like Manchin to pretend they’re being sensible instead of just selfish. And the Democrats are hardly blameless either. They’re absurdly bad at messaging and often seem to care more about compromising with their colleagues across the aisle instead of fighting for ordinary Americans.
The short-lived CTC reveals one of the big lies in politics: the idea that it’s far too difficult to do anything about big problems like poverty. As the brief success of the CTC demonstrates, simply giving families a little more money pays massive dividends. We know how to make people’s lives better, we just lack the political will to do so.
Bolsonaro faces stiff questioning over Brazilian army’s Viagra purchase
The navy and air force bought more than 30,000 pills but claimed the drug was being used to treat pulmonary hypertension, which is … hard to believe.
Republican politician says the homeless should be inspired by Hitler
Frank Nicely, a Tennessee state senator, tried to rally support for a bill that critics say would criminalize homelessness by delivering a completely unhinged and unsolicited history lesson. “For two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and body language and how to connect with the masses and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books,” Nicely said. It seems that Republican lawmaker are in intense competition to see who can be most deranged.
UNHCR concerned about single British men hosting Ukrainian refugee women
There’s an initiative in the UK called Homes for Ukraine which lets anyone with a spare room open their homes to Ukrainians fleeing war. Which is very nice except that a bunch of perverts are using it to prey on vulnerable women: a recent undercover investigation by the Times found that some British men were asking Ukranian women to share their beds. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has now asked the UK government to review the scheme.
The British government wants to send asylum seekers to Rwanda
The latest dystopian idea from a government riddled with corruption and devoid of compassion.
Women could be paid not to have abortions in northern Italy
A far-right politician wants to give women €4,000 if they don’t get an abortion–a move feminist groups have derided as “manipulative”.
Texas woman charged with murder over ‘self-induced abortion’
Prosecutors have now dropped the outrageous murder charges but abortion advocates worry the case could have a chilling effect on pregnant people seeking medical care in Texas.
US men with college degrees have moved dramatically to the right
Recent polling shows that college-educated men have swung Republican by 26 points since 2018; men on the whole have moved towards Republicans by 20 points. “The Republican party’s exploding support among men comes as the organs of rightwing media and many Republican politicians have embraced a vitriolic language of gender grievance,” writes Moira Donegan.
The week in pawtriarchy
Cats have gone wild in a California stadium: the Oakland Coliseum is currently dealing with hordes of feral cats. While they were apparently drafted in to help deal with rodents, the cats have now multiplied. “We can live with the cats,” one of the Coliseum’s directors said. “They do good work. But … we don’t need quite as many as we’ve got on duty right now. Early in the morning, we find them sometimes sitting in the carts, in the driver’s seat, like they’re ready to go on rodent patrol.” Doesn’t sound like a problem to me.
Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order
