40 Million People in the United States are Living in Poverty, Number Expected to Rise due to Tax Reform.
The United States is supposed to be the greatest country on Earth. Our nation supposedly operates a foreign policy aimed at spreading democracy and human rights to other nations, but how can we do that when we ignore those who need aid within our own country. One of the first steps in realizing that the United States doesn't operate with human rights or democracy in mind is to look at what those in power choose to do for the 40 million human beings, and 13 million children living in poverty under their jurisdiction.
A United Nations Human Rights Council report puts this idea into very simple terms, it states that the idea of American exceptionalism has blinded almost all Americans from realizing that the position of America in the world has never been extremely exceptional. The report states, "...today's United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and founding commitment to human rights.", wether they're taking about our arming of terrorist groups abroad or abuse and neglect of our own citizens at home, they're not wrong.
The UNHRC report states that roughly 40 million people in the United States are living in poverty, and according to a Children's Defense Fund report on poverty in the United States, "...about 13 million American children are living in homes with incomes below the poverty line...", they state that this results in malnutrition, an increased risk of homelessness and exposure to violence, and lack of access to a good education. The report goes on to state, "Two-thirds of those living in poverty are children of color", and overall, poverty affects roughly one out of every five children in America according to the activist group Ending Child Poverty Now.
The people in power know these numbers and yet they still choose to take insufficient actions to combat this national epidemic. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council, "The United States is one of the worlds richest, most powerful and technologically innovative countries; but neither its wealth nor its power nor its technology is being harnessed to address the situation in witch 40 million people continue to live in poverty."
Some members of the newly formed Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have begun to repeat the UNHRC's position that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, nobody should be too poor to live; this should especially apply to children and the elderly who do not have the ability to care for themselves. Unfortunately, rather than adequately funding the domestic programs we already have in place to combat child poverty, those in power on both sides of the establishment are choosing to spend $716+ billion on spending for perpetual warfare, with Donald Trump as commander in chief. .
The Children's Defense Fund report states that solutions to child poverty within our society already exist, we just need to adequately fund them in order to combat this epidemic. The CDF report gives the examples of nutrition assistance, housing vouchers, and tax credits, stating that these programs "...helped lift nearly 7 million children out of poverty in 2017, but millions of children were left behind due to inadequate funding, eligibility restrictions and low wages.". Our government has programs in place that can help lift people out of poverty but they have been undermined by those in power since the passing of welfare reform under the presidency of Bill Clinton. The CDF report states that the cost of adequately funding our welfare state to combat poverty in the United States is "...$52bn, just 1.4% of overall federal spending.", but since the 1990's Congress has chosen to fund the Pentagon and DoD with exponentially increasing budgets while attempting to cut spending on social programs that help lift people out of poverty every chance they get.
According to the CDF report, "Increasing access to housing subsidies to low-income families on less than 150% of the poverty level of $25,100 a year for a family of four, would alone lift 2 million children out of poverty.", but rather than increasing access to affordable housing subsidies, Republicans in Congress, led by the President are seeking to cut spending on almost every single social program aimed at lifting people living in the United States out of poverty. Furthermore, the United Nations Human Rights Council has stated that Donald Trumps Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, "...stakes out American's bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and poorest 50% of Americans".
Of overall discretionary spending in 2019, only $154 billion has been allocated to fund domestic programs that will benefit the American people and provide assistance to the people in our nation living in poverty, while $708+ billion has been funneled into the the American war machine. Transportation and housing programs that those in poverty rely on to get to work and have a place to sleep have been given a budget of $71.4 billion. Within this larger budget lies the smaller budget of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at $44.5 billion. The budget for the United States department of Agriculture, and other rural development and conservation programs that provide nutrition to those who need it is just $23.2 billion for fiscal year 2019. We cannot keep spending exponentially greater amounts of taxpayer dollars on endless warfare while the children within our own nation do are living in poverty.
We say the United States is the greatest country on Earth, but we are only great at spending more money on warfare than any other nation in the world.
- US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world.
- Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the “health gap” between the U.S. and its peer countries continues to grow.
- The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world.
- In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world.
- America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand and the Russian Federation. Its rate is nearly 5 times the OECD average
- In the OECD the US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality.