An extraordinary plan meets an exceptional challenge from poverty

A couple of years before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the United Nations released a stunning report on poverty, especially child poverty, in the United States. Phillip Alston, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, after touring the nation and studying international economic data, concluded that the United States had used neither its tremendous wealth nor its massive technological prowess to address the challenges of a huge population living in poverty.

Alston noted that though the U.S. is the richest nation on earth, it ranked 35th of 37 Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries – the advanced democratic nations – in poverty and economic inequality. Even worse, the report found, our “child poverty rate (was) highest in the entire OECD” – with one quarter of youth living in poverty compared to 14% across the OECD. We’re the richest, but treat our kids the worst.

The U.S. is “the clear and constant outlier in child poverty,” the U.N. study determined. A “shockingly high number of children in the U.S. live in poverty.” And “child poverty rates are highest in the southern states.” The findings were even more brutal for the youngest kids. Forty-two percent of Black “toddlers and infants,” 32% of Hispanics and 37% of Native American kids under 5 are poor.

America is “exceptional,” the report concluded, in ways “shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights.” The Trump administration, which a year earlier had passed a gigantic tax cut that went overwhelmingly to the top 20%, said it had no interest in hearing from the U.N. on American poverty. Fake news.

Echoing Alston’s earlier findings, CNN reported last week “the U.S. has one of the highest child poverty rates of any wealthy country and one of the lowest shares of national spending on children and families ... more than a quarter of Black children and one-fifth of Hispanic children live below the poverty line.”

Then comes, almost joltingly, President Biden’s COVID recovery plan. As Bernie Sanders explained:

“This legislation addresses a crisis this country has ignored too long. We have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of any major nation on earth. This legislation will expand the child tax credit and lower childhood poverty by up to 50%... The richest country in history is (finally) going to pay attention to our kids.”

Economists report that low and moderate income folks will benefit most from the huge aid package. The number of Americans living in poverty, they say, will drop by a third in 2021. North Carolina has one of the nation’s highest rates of child poverty. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates it will benefit 2.1 million Tar Heel kids and lift 137,000 of them out of poverty.

Many of the act’s provisions are temporary and will desperately need to be sustained. But it’s almost consciousness-altering to see a massive federal program that favors those at the bottom rather than those at the top. We, quite habitually, have come to think government only exists to serve rich people. Who knew?

This is not the work of the Goldman Sachs crowd. Nor is it typical Democratic fare. Bill Clinton, after all, threw poor people, especially poor kids, permanently under the bus to press his own electoral fortunes. His ultimately unsuccessful partners, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, were anxious to follow suit.

Who would have guessed the preternaturally moderate Joe Biden would act so boldly? Who would have predicted the oldest elected president would do so much to protect the youngest Americans? As Chuck Berry put it: “C’est la vie, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.” You never can.

This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 7:15 AM.