The Cost of Greed: Women and Children Pay the Price
Many voters said that lowering prices for families was one of their top issues in the election, and many Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, promised to deliver on this priority if elected. Now that those elected officials have won control of the White House and Congress — and have significant power to shape the agenda for the next two years — what’s their first priority? Raising costs on health care and groceries for working families to pay for billionaire tax breaks.
I wish I were kidding.
Then President Trump and the Republican lawmakers gave away billions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest households and big corporations in 2017, and those tax breaks are set to expire next year. But rather than ensuring that the wealthiest finally pay their fair share, Republican lawmakers are planning to cut funding for programs that help women and children receive affordable health care and groceries — all so that they can pass even more tax cuts for billionaires.
And it gets worse. Republican lawmakers are proposing to make these cuts at the same time that poverty rates for women, mothers, and children are increasing.
A new NWLC fact sheet outlines the magnitude of this problem. In 2021, U.S. poverty rates fell significantly in the wake of Congress passing robust support for families in the form of expanded housing and food assistance, as well as an expanded Child Tax Credit, which sent up to $250 a month per child to families in 2021. These measures were temporary, however, and in the aftermath of their expiration, poverty rates predictably spiked.
The fact sheet, which looks at the most recent poverty data from the U.S. Census Bureau, finds that for children, the poverty rate more than doubled from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022, and then continued to climb to 13.8% in 2023.
The same is true for adult women, who are far more likely than men to live in poverty. NWLC found that poverty rates increased year over year for adult women starting in 2021, from 8.7% in 2021 to 13% in 2022 to 13.3% in 2023. All this while billionaire wealth reaches record highs.
Simply put, billionaire wealth should not be increasing at the same time that poverty rates for women and children are spiking. Everyone in this country deserves basic support, including access to affordable food, shelter, and care. And it is up to our government to ensure that people who are struggling can achieve these basic needs.
The government also has a role to play in ensuring that billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. If billionaires pay more in taxes, we could easily fund programs that help families put food on the table and access basic health care.
Right now, that does not appear to be the Republicans lawmakers’ plan, though it should be. The American people don’t want more billionaires buying their second or third yacht while they’re struggling to afford the bills.
Tell Congress and the Republican majority: Make the wealthiest pay their fair share. No new tax cuts for billionaires or wealthy corporations in 2025.
Unless otherwise noted, all references to poverty rates in the blog refer to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which is considered a more reliable and accurate measure of poverty than the Official Poverty Measure (OPM).
