April 17, 2019

Vox: Democrats don’t have to wait for Trump to leave office to cut child poverty

media mention

But these plans have one major obstacle: Donald Trump is president. Policymakers in the Democratic fold have been arguing over what should happen in a hypothetical 2021 in which Trump has been defeated, Democrats control the Senate, and the party gets a brief opening to pass legislation.

There’s no guarantee that will happen (especially the Senate victory), and there’s also no need to wait that long. Democrats control the legislature and governorship in 14 states and Washington, DC, representing more than a third of the country’s population. A new reportfrom the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia lays out a number of ways that state governments could substantially cut poverty. The report focuses on one tool in particular: a child benefit, offering anywhere from $2,000 to $3,600 per child to all but the richest parents, similar to the benefits most European countries offer to parents. Read more



Share