Category: Poverty

With Trump's impeachment over, "there is not much news going on." But I recommend paying attention to the bill in Congress because:
(a) it is possible with the filibuster almost nothing else will pass in the next four years, and
(b) this could dramatically help poor people.
👇

• 

• 

• 

It is impossible to overstate the difference between the people struggling in the United States and those who are doing well. The stock market indices are at all time highs. The constant talk on CNBC is of large and startup companies being so rich there is worry about a bubble.

People who have had money in the stock market in 2020 have reaped massive returns. And rich people have not been able to spend as much money on vacations, entertainment, and eating out so they have been spending it on nicer homes and on saving and investing their cash.

Meanwhile, 15% of workers have been directly hurt by the COVID recession.
https://twitter.com/hshierholz/status/1357692597469253634
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (nominated by President Trump) says unemployment in January was close to 10%, which is horrendous.

Today is the last #JobsDay with data from the Trump Administration (today’s data are from mid-January). So what does the economy former President Trump handed off to President Biden look like? It’s bleak. 1/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) February 5, 2021

• 

• 

This 10% drop in employment is worse than other recessions.

How this recession compares to previous ones. Jobs deficit today is still bigger than it was at the very worst point of the Great Recession
(with thanks to my colleague @salvesergio) pic.twitter.com/i4ZqWO7j2M

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 5, 2021

And jobs are coming back more slowly now.

Here's the clearest sign yet the recovery is in trouble:

May: +2.7 million jobs added back
June: +4.8 million
July: +1.8 million
August: +1.5 million
Sept: +711,000
Oct: +654,000
Nov: +264,000
Dec: -227,000
Jan: +49,000 –> many are "temp jobs"https://t.co/nFxwPdHFTy

— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) February 5, 2021

18% of households with children sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past week in December! And this number was just going up!

https://twitter.com/arelisrhdz/status/1354462341857947653

See my recent January 26th thread about who to consider learning from with regard to policy solutions.

With Congress eventually going to pass some financial legislation (through budget reconciliation) with 50 Senate votes, https://t.co/UILcC4RWg6
I recommend policy wonk journalists who are interested in what helps people. @mattyglesias @Noahpinion @rebeccavallas @dylanmatt

— Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) January 26, 2021

As Christians, we can certainly jump in as private citizens and churches to meet needs. However, we can also advocate that government assist with helping people through effective means like SNAP benefits (food stamps).

See: @rebeccavallas @laurenlbauer

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-biden-is-expanding-snap/id994153765?i=1000508803822

Biblical support:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 23:22. https://t.co/kkowUuuwKR

— Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) February 11, 2021

See also my Jan 17th thread about the minimum wage.
https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1350877878553083905
and today @wilsonhartgrove tries to explain the plight of the poor who work multiple jobs.

I wish every US Senator would take the time to sit down & talk this thru w/ a minimum wage worker like Ray. But if they won’t, we should do a little public education to give them some remedial education in Front Porch Math.

— Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (@wilsonhartgrove) February 15, 2021

Note too that the estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cost jobs is exaggerated.
https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1358888317622755329,
https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1359375749426212864,

CBO's employment effects of the minimum wage are *really* out there. Dube's comprehensive review implies job losses less than one-tenth the size. NEUMARK'S review implies job losses less than one-third the size of what CBO finds. 1/ https://t.co/LzcfgGn77X

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) February 8, 2021

For those appalled by the idea of government assistance, note the leading conservative Republican thinkers (Brad Wilcox, Yuval Levin, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ross Douthat) are open to the massive payments Mitt Romney proposed to assist families with children.

Yuval is for it: The Romney Plan https://t.co/JZjurxXWhq

— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) February 8, 2021

Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on February 15, 2021.