Washington and New York. The number of children living in poverty in the United States doubled from 4 million to 9 million between 2021 and 2022, the largest increase in poverty for minors in one year in United States history according to official data, an increase experts say. is a direct result of political leaders’ decisions to deactivate programs that have worked effectively to reduce poverty.
“The staggering increase in poverty reported today is a direct result of policy decisions,” said Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an independent think tank in Washington. He criticized the US Congress for not renewing tax credits for children among other measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic that have reduced poverty.
The official overall poverty rate also increased from 7.8 percent of the population to 12.4 percent, according to data from the US Census Bureau released on Tuesday. It is also reported that the real average (abnormal) income has also decreased due to the increase in prices.
The Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, which has been studying this data for several years, has confirmed that the tax credits approved during the pandemic have been able to reduce child poverty and help most households. with low income. despite strengthening their finances. But Congress decided not to renew the credits last year.
For sociologist Mathew Desmond, these numbers are no accident, but a direct result of deliberate political decisions that give more priority to tax cuts for the middle class and the wealthy. instead of programs that have proven effective in helping the poorest. “Today the main beneficiaries of federal aid are wealthy families. In total, the United States will spend $1.8 billion in tax cuts by 2021,” Desmond wrote in the New York Review of Books after His book “Poverty in America” was published last year.
