The Census Bureau just released national poverty, income, and insurance data for 2023. It’s important to understand income and health insurance trends, but it’s especially important now since Congress will take up major tax legislation in 2025.
One thing we know for sure is that when the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was expanded in 2021, child poverty decreased by 46% overall, with Black and Hispanic/Latino child poverty falling by 6.3 percentage points in each community, impacting 716,000 Black children and 1.2 million Hispanic children. The new data shows that in 2023, the CTC lifted 2.4 million people above the federal poverty line―while important, falling far short of the 5.4 million lifted above the federal poverty line in 2021 by expanded monthly Child Tax Credit payments that included all children in low-income families.
Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.
Many people are facing food and housing insecurity, challenges with high child care costs, and dealing with other hardships that make it harder to make ends meet. Expanding the Child Tax Credit fixes a major flaw in current law: over 18 million children and their families are excluded from the full credit because their parents’ income is too low.
You read that right. Families where a parent can’t work due to illness or being laid off, cannot qualify for the Child Tax Credit at all. And many parents who work at low wages cannot get the full CTC. A single parent earning $15,000 a year and who has two children, will receive less than a family with a parent who has a higher paying job. This is a flaw that does nothing but exacerbate inequity and accelerate the racial wealth gap.
Instead of cutting investments in key programs and services, Congress must prioritize funding for human needs and that means passing an expanded Child Tax Credit that reaches the very poorest households.
Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.
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So the first part of the Trump budget is out, and it is one of the clearest examples of upside-down priorities you’re likely to see. It cuts funds from programs serving our people – education, nutrition, housing, job training, legal services, afterschool care… – to add money for the Pentagon….
The dark and dangerous priorities of the Trump Administration are laid bare in its first budget submission. The winners are military contractors and tough guy ideologues. The losers are the American people. Anyone who harbored hopes of investment in jobs and opportunity for working class families will be bitterly disappointed. …
Editor’s note: Congress is considering repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and is debating major structural changes, and perhaps significant cuts, to Medicaid, which serves 74 million Americans. Voices for Human Needs is reaching out and telling the stories of those who could be harmed if the ACA is repealed without a…
CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for articles on House Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, FY17 & FY18 budget and appropriations work, the revised travel ban, President Trump’s cabinet, worker protections under threat and the Supreme Court nominee….
If you’re like me, you are very, very angry. Fortunately, we can take action that can make a difference. Two House committees approved legislation that would gut the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. It is a pretty monstrous example of Reverse Robin Hood: millions of low/moderate income people would be…
Editor’s note: Congress is considering repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and is debating major structural changes, and perhaps significant cuts, to Medicaid, which serves 74 million Americans. Voices for Human Needs is reaching out and telling the stories of those who could be harmed if the ACA is repealed without a…
“This bill sends a loud and clear message: tax cuts for special interests and the wealthy matter more than your health care.” This is how Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) described House Republicans’ legislation, unveiled on March 6, to repeal the Affordable Care Act and dismantle Medicaid. There’s so much head-smacking…
Editor’s note: Congress is considering repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and is debating major structural changes, and perhaps significant cuts, to Medicaid, which serves 74 million Americans. Voices for Human Needs is reaching out and telling the stories of those who could be harmed if the ACA is repealed without a…
Editor’s note: Congress is considering repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and is debating major structural changes, and perhaps significant cuts, to Medicaid, which serves 74 million Americans. Voices for Human Needs is reaching out and telling the stories of those who could be harmed if the ACA is repealed without a…
Editor’s note: CHN’s response to President Trump’s Feb. 28 speech to Congress originally appeared in the Huffington Post on March 1. To hear the media describe it, we saw and heard a kinder, gentler Donald Trump at work Tuesday night. Addressing a joint session of Congress, he promised better health…
The number of children receiving child care funded by the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) fell to a 17-year low, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). The CCDBG is the primary source of federal funding for helping low-income families pay for child care, with…
Earlier this month, House Republicans unveiled what they described as a plan for “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act. The plan, however is not really a plan. It comes with no price tag, no explanation of how many million Americans would lose their current coverage, of how much more…