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Do Children Have a Right to Eat?
The expanded Child Tax Credit puts food on the table
Human Rights Day is observed every December 10th, the day that the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year’s theme is: “All Human, All Equal.”
The principles of equality and non-discrimination are at the heart of human rights. According to the United Nations, “rampant poverty, pervasive inequalities and structural discrimination are human rights violations and among the greatest global challenges of our time.”
The Child Tax Credit reduces poverty
The expanded Child Tax Credit, originally passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, has helped families to put food on the table. A survey from the Census Bureau found that families who received the expanded Child Tax Credit were more able to buy groceries and pay weekly expenses. In fact, 47% of the 64,562 respondents reported spending the Child Tax Credit on food.
And, yet, the Build Back Better Bill, which extends the expanded Child Tax Credit for just one more year, sits languishing in the Senate. It has been passed by the House, but if the Senate does not pass this bill by the end of the year, millions of children will go hungry again.
In the United States, 140 million are poor or of low wealth, according to the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). And, obviously, the pandemic has exacerbated both poverty and inequality. The PPC’s December 13th #MoralMarch on Washington demands that Congress “Get It Done in ‘21,” that is, pass the Build Back Better Bill by the end of the year. The PPC campaigns for a moral and political commitment to fully address poverty and low wealth in the United States.
The politics of poverty
Congress easily passed a $768 billion defense budget for 2022, one that increased the budget $26 billion above what the President requested and 16% above what it was in 2021, and no one asked how we are going to pay for it. But, the government cannot seem to pass the Build Back Better Bill, which includes just $200 billion for a one-year extension of the refundable Child Tax Credit and ultimately pays for itself.
