WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans spent the past three years fighting to cut anti-poverty programs and expand work rules, so their support for emergency relief -- especially in the form of directly sending people checks, usually a nonstarter in American politics -- is
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans spent the past three years fighting to cut anti-poverty programs and expand work rules, so their support for emergency relief — especially in the form of directly sending people checks, usually a nonstarter in American politics — is a significant reversal of their effort to shrink the safety net.
Most rich countries have universal health insurance and provide a minimum cash income for families with children. The United States has neither as well as higher rates of child poverty. Conservatives say the limits on public aid are a strength of the U.S. system, and they credit work requirements for cutting child poverty in recent years to record lows. If anything, most would go further in extending work requirements to programs in which they have been limited or missing, like food stamps and Medicaid.
The rolls plunged, falling more than three-quarters nationally and at least 90% in eight states. For every 100 poor families with children, only 22 now receive cash aid, from about 80 at the peak of the old welfare system, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Benefit levels also fell, by at least a third in 23 states. To a degree few thought possible, welfare really did “end.”
Conservatives point to falling poverty rates to argue the system has worked. By 2018, the share of children in poverty had fallen to about 13%, from 30% in the early 1980s. Liberals argue that most of that poverty reduction occurred in the 1990s, when the economy soared and growth was widely shared, and has been sustained by the tax credit and food stamp expansions — with the latter a program many conservatives would cut.
Despite the declines, child poverty in the United States remains higher than in most similar countries. About 17.2% of American children live on less than half the median income, said Timothy Smeeding, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, citing data from Luxembourg Income Study. That compares to 11.9% in Canada, 10.2% in the United Kingdom and 9.4% in Ireland. The United States also spends less on needy families as a share of its economy.
“Even in good times incomes are very volatile, especially for low-income families,” said Waldforgel, the Columbia professor, who has studied such allowances in Europe. “A child allowance protects children from swings in the economy.” The Trump administration has followed a restrictive philosophy. Three proposed food stamp rules, one finalized, would together cut the caseload of 36 million people by about 10%. That is partly due to expanded work requirements, like forcing more people to show they have searched for jobs.
Trump has also fought to undermine the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which experts say caused the share of uninsured Americans to rise last year for the first time since the law passed.
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