From Federal Children’s Watch –

Child Poverty Reaches an All-Time High

The United States Census Bureau released its poverty and health insurance report last week. A record 16,401,000 children and youth lived in poverty in 2010, an increase of more than three million from 2007, the year before the current economic downturn began.

More than one in five children now live in poverty, a percentage (22%) exceeding the 1995 child poverty level, the year the so-called welfare reform law was passed, for the first time. Despite the claims of some of those running for the Republican presidential nomination, welfare reform has ultimately done nothing to reduce child poverty. What it has done is leave low-income families far more vulnerable today than they were a generation ago.

While child poverty increased 23% since 2007 and poverty among those 18 to 64 years old increased 29%, elderly poverty *fell* by 1%. Federal safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid have largely protected the elderly from feeling the pain of this recession. Children and working-aged people have not been spared. Many in Washington are talking about “reforming” these safety net programs so they provide fewer benefits to fewer people. We disagree and support only reforms that give every American man, woman, and child the same protection we currently give the elderly in challenging economic times.

In good news, we are pleased to report that the number and percentage of children without health insurance has declined over the last decade. In 2001, 8.5 million children (11.7%) were uninsured. Last Year, fewer than one-in-ten (9.8%) children were uninsured, a decline of 1.2 million. At the same time, the percentage of children covered by private health insurance declined by 10 points (62.4% to 52.4%). Federal health care programs have made the difference in protecting children’s health during the recession. The share of children covered by Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program has increased from 25.7% of all children to 37.9%. These programs must be protected from the $1.2 trillion in cuts Congress has to make this year. Click here to send this message to your members of Congress.

The President’s Deficit Reduction Plan
On Monday of this week, President Obama released his plan to reduce the federal deficit by $4.4 trillion over the next decade. The key components of this plan include ending the Bush era tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year, imposing a surtax on millionaires so those at the very top of the income ladder can no longer pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than those who work for them, closing corporate tax loopholes, and making cuts to government spending. Click here for more details. While we do not see eye to eye on every decision in this, it represents a serious effort to reign in the federal debt, protects children’s health, safety, and education programs, invests in the future, and ends tax breaks for the wealthy. The federal budget deficit cannot be closed by spending cuts alone. This will lead to deep cuts in children’s programs. Those who benefitted the most from tax breaks in the last decade should return to contributing now at the level they did during the 1990s boom. We applaud the Administration for putting this comprehensive plan out and urge members of Congress to either adopt it or put out their plan to reduce debt by $4.4 trillion.

Another Government Shutdown Looming?
This commentary appeared in Roll Call recently outlining the games members of Congress are continuing to play with next year’s budget. On September 30th, the current fiscal year ends. Currently, the Congress has proposed nothing specific for most children’s programs for next year. Since they do not have a final budget, they will have to pass what is known in Washington as a “continuing resolution” to fund the government past September 30th. Normally, this resolution would eventually be replaced as Congress passes its budget at some point later this year or early next year. However, the leadership of the House is considering setting a hard deadline of November 18th for the resolution to end or the government would shut down. This will happen right around the time Congress takes up the $1.2 trillion in cuts mandated by the debt ceiling agreement passed last month. This is a dangerous situation for children’s programs as some in Congress seemed poised to threaten a government shutdown unless deep cuts in programs, including ones for children, are made and the current low tax rates for millionaires and billionaires are kept in place. We will keep you updated.

 

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An email newsletter of the
Georgia Association of Homes
and Services for Children
as a public service.                        
Normer Adams, Editor
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