About 12.4%, some 41 million, of the U.S.'s 333 million people live at or below the poverty line, the Census Bureau calculates, which is set at about $29,678 for a household of two adults and two chidren.
That rate fell to a record low in 2021 thanks to COVID-19 federal support, but has jumped as these programs expired.
Hardline Republicans in the House have rejected a deal the Republican-led House negotiated with U.S. President Joe Biden in May for $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2024, paving the way for wide swaths of the government to shut down for the fourth time in a decade.
Okay, that’s more like it.
You’re absolutely correct, it is a massive structural problem. It’s incredibly stupid and causes an obscene amount of pain every year or so because the structure of government enables a few children causing a tantrum to grind everything to a halt.
But once you’d identified that, what next? This is one of the many downsides of being stuck with one of the oldest active constitutions in the world that was envisioning a very different environment than what we have now. The simple fact of the matter is that we’re not going to see a Constitutional Convention anytime remotely soon (and given how disastrous that could be, probably for the best). So, what is the point of spending energy being angry about these structural issues when that won’t actually accomplish anything?
Believe me, everyone involved in government right now knows that this is incredibly stupid. It’s not as if no one has ever considered this before. The problem is, no matter how frustrating it is, being angry at these structural issues doesn’t actually do anything, because we’re stuck with them. While I do think it is absolutely important to raise some awareness about those issues, that doesn’t really help the acute situation right now.
So yes, it is horrific that welfare payments will get halted by this, I completely agree. I don’t see where I ever “refused to acknowledge” the structural issues that caused this. They’re not a secret; everyone vaguely knowledgeable about politics knows them.
Your first response was to dismiss my criticism of America’s government by creating a false dilemma between funding war and feeding the poor. Then followed that up by dismissing my criticism by telling me to only blame McCarthy. Then followed that by mocking me and the very concept of government critique as pie-in-the-sky revolutionary idealism.
Over and over you deflect from America’s structural problems.
Knock it off.