America must invest in its children

We’re going to hear a lot about spending, taxes and the deficit as the factions in Congress butt heads for the next two years. But what about investment? What about investment in our children?

In 2021, the American Rescue Plan and one of its key pieces — expanding the Child Tax Credit — cut child poverty by 46 percent. Its success shows that we can choose lower or higher child poverty rates. It isn’t inevitable that so many American children will be poor.

The child poverty rate fell from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 5.2 percent in 2021, the U.S Census Bureau reported. Overall, the CTC lifted 5.3 million people out of poverty, including 2.9 million children.

The American Rescue Plan -- a Democratic initiative that passed with no Republican votes -- increased the value of the CTC from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under age 6, and to $3,000 for children between ages 6 and 17.

Unfortunately, Congress failed to extend the CTC in its expanded form after its expiration at the end of 2021.

As a result of this “millions of children fell back below the poverty line, almost immediately,” the Motley Fool, a private financial and investing advice company, said.

What’s the problem? For one thing, Republicans are upset that the CTC was made fully refundable, meaning a family got money even if it paid little or no taxes.

But to do otherwise would cut funding for the children of the poorest of the poor. No matter what you think about adults who can’t or won’t work, to keep their kids in poverty and increase the chance for the cycle of poverty to continue in their lives is a level of cruelty that has no place in our government.

Republicans want to include a work requirement in any CTC expansion. Are they prepared to help these folks find work? To support programs that match people with available jobs in their area and train them fill jobs that are in demand where they live?

And are they willing to provide help in paying for child care for the parents whose paychecks would be pretty much wiped out by the cost of daycare that they’ll need while they’re at work?

About 5 million children under 18 lived in households in which children, along with adults, were food insecure in 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.

About 521,000 children experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at some time during the year, a sub-classification called very low food security. And Republicans talk about cutting food stamps.

We’re not looking at the right people. Republicans want to draw attention to poor adults they can characterize as lazy takers.

We need to look at their children. Are we dooming too many of them from the womb because we want to make their parents pay for what some people see as their flawed character and work ethic?

We need to invest in our children, and we need the bulk of that investment to go to the poor and lower middle class.

That includes making sure they have enough to eat and a proper education. Investments in cutting child poverty aren’t “handouts.” They’re a hand up and an investment in our future.

We can’t look the other way when kids aren’t getting enough to eat. When their parents struggle to provide them with the basic necessities, let alone the “luxury” of a new toy or a vacation to see the world outside the suffocating sphere of their own poverty.

We can’t let children suffer while others rake in even more wealth. We can’t let tax cuts directed to the rich and corporations trump our obligation to help our most valuable resource, our children.

No great country would stand for that. Why do we?