3.7 million more kids are in poverty without the monthly Child Tax Credit, study says
NPR Online NewsSep 09, 2021
The Facts
According to a collaborative analysis from national children's advocacy group Child Trends and The New York Times (NYT), the US child poverty rate declined by 59% between 1993 and 2019 due to govt. welfare programs.
The project used data from the US Census Bureau - which released its own report on Tuesday that shows that child poverty dropped by nearly half in 2021, from 9.7% in 2020 to 5.2% - but it reportedly focused on a wider time-frame and a greater demographic scope.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
Though any significant drop in child poverty is great news, the reality is that minority children still suffer poverty at far greater rates than their white counterparts. With the historical effects of racism obviously at play, the govt. needs to figure out a way to close this gap completely by continuing to implement the much-needed programs that have been proven to work through these latest reports.
Republican narrative
While these numbers look promising, the reality is that they're merely superficial and were achieved by a spending program that not only did nothing to address the underlying causes of child poverty but actually institutionalized the problem by making many parents reliant on an unsustainable "solution."
Pro-Trump narrative
What this report conveniently withholds is the positive impact that former Pres. Donald Trump's economic policies had on all Americans, but especially Black Americans. His policies led to an economic boom among the Black working class not seen in generations, and that should be in the headlines alongside this recent study.
