Republicans keeping Americans poor by blocking policies that help average working Americans.

https://thehill.com/business/4198264-white-house-prepares-for-sharp-rise-in-poverty-rate/

The White House is preparing for a sharp rise in the U.S. poverty rate following the end of pandemic-era child tax credit (CTC) expansion.

President Biden and Democrats fought unsuccessfully last year to extend an expanded version of the CTC that started during the depths of the pandemic and temporarily lifted millions of children out of poverty.

The Census Bureau is set to release Tuesday its annual report on poverty, income, and health insurance. The new poverty data will be a hit for Biden, whose reelection campaign could hinge on how Americans feel about the economy.

The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) said in a blog post Friday that it expects a “sharp rise” in the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which measures income and benefits plus government programs such as tax refunds and food stamps.

To “understand why this is likely to happen in 2022, it is crucial to remember what happened in 2021,” the CEA argued.

A Democratic-controlled Congress passed the beefed-up CTC in 2021, boosting the credit eligible parents could receive to $3,000 per child over the age of 6 and $3,600 per child under the age of 6.

The enhanced CTC alone lifted almost 3 million children out of poverty in 2021 and cut the child poverty rate by more than 40 percent in 2021, the CEA wrote.

The expansion expired in December 2021, and Democrats have not been able to strike a deal with Republicans to bring it back since.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who has championed expanding the program, said that the census data will show that Congress should have not allowed the expanded credit to expire.