Building Back Better Starts by Addressing Child Poverty
By Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Throughout America, millions of people have spent the past year in crisis because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have had their lives shattered by unimaginable loss: over 300,000 Americans have died, millions more families have lost jobs and homes, and a generation of young people have suffered setbacks to their educations. And at the same time, there’s another crisis caused by this pandemic affecting the wellbeing of children: child poverty. According to the Census Bureau, over 11 million children in America live in abject, stomach-gnawing, chilling poverty. That’s 1 in 6 children. And as with so many aspects of this pandemic, this crisis is affecting people of color the hardest of all: nearly 3 in 4 poor children are children of color.
Let’s be clear about something: our epidemic of child poverty is a choice. We’re the richest nation in the world, spending trillions of dollars on military weapons and endless wars, but won’t expand coverage of the federal Child Tax Credit so that 23 million children whose families earn too little to qualify don’t slip through the cracks. In America, time and time again we make policy choices that serve the powerful and wealthy while neglecting the most vulnerable members of our society. It’s up to us to make a different choice: to end child poverty, as a moral imperative.
We don’t have to settle for this shameful state of affairs — we can, and must, demand more from our government. In Congress, I’ve fought to get the Child Tax Credit expanded to cover all children, so we stop leaving out those who need the help most, and this session I will pick that fight up again. I am extremely heartened that as part of his COVID-19 stimulus package, President Biden is expanding the size of the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 for children under the age of 6 and $3,000 for children under the age of 17, and I hope that this expansion of the CTC is made permanent after the coronavirus pandemic ends.
Expanding the Child Tax Credit’s size and coverage isn’t just the right thing to do — Americans overwhelmingly support expanding this policy, too. Polling by Data for Progress shows that 59% of Americans support providing families with refundable tax credits to decrease the cost of childcare and help decrease the child poverty rate, even when presented with an argument against doing so.
In Congress, I’ve also been advocating for us to redirect funds from our $740 billion military budget towards investments here at home, such as building additional housing and increasing access to benefits like SNAP. Data for Progress polling shows Americans agree: 56% of Americans support using taxpayer dollars to end child poverty instead of funding our endless wars. Ending child poverty is one of the strongest moral imperatives upon us, and also one of the most possible actions the government can take, giving us a clear mandate to take action.
With the development of a coronavirus vaccine and a new administration entering the White House, I am hopeful that the stranglehold exerted by the COVID-19 pandemic on Americans’ health and well-being will loosen soon. We cannot, however, build a better society after the COVID-19 pandemic without addressing the epidemic of child poverty that plagues us, which will worsen significantly if we do nothing. We have the power, the money, and the mandate to end child poverty in the next decade — now is the time to act.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee represents California's 13th congressional district.