In The United States, Approximately 13 Million Children Are Living Below America’s Poverty Line
While Donald Trump, his administration and the Republican Congress regale us with how well the economy is doing, they are careful to neglect pointing out that wages are far below what is needed to keep up with the cost of living, and that the suffering of America’s children is one of the results.
Americans are seeing that as the wealthiest Americans get tax cuts, many working families must struggle on a minimum wage that forces them to use food stamps, but still doesn’t allow them to meet some of their basic needs.
According to rhetoric from the current administration, Americans are better off than they have ever been; but are they?
Children who are brought up under a cloud of poverty are affected adversely in their development and their opportunities, yet according to the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) about one in three children lives in a family where although at least one of the adults works full time they are paid so poorly that their family is living in poverty.
Children should not be expected to be concerned about where their next meal will come from, or where they’ll have to sleep, yet the CDF informs us that fully one third of America’s children are living in poverty. This is a completely unnecessary and preventable crisis in a country that has the means to change children’s poverty levels simply by raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour, increasing housing allowances, child care subsidies, tax credits and job training access. Such changes would be capable of elevating millions of children out of poverty.
According to the CDF report, the cost of the such changes are approimately $52 billion, which is just just 1.4% of federal spending. Since in 2017 the Federal government spent nearly $2 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations, this looks like a pretty good deal to me.
So what is holding our government back from investing in America’s children?
For more information on this subject: https://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/policy-priorities/child-poverty/
