Good News! Poverty Drops To Historic Low After Biden Relief

Trillions of dollars of coronavirus relief programs are expected to lift nearly 20 million Americans out of poverty. According to The New York Times, there has been a 45 percent drop in the country’s poverty rate. The poverty rate among children has dropped by 61 percent, largely due to the expansion of the child tax credit via Biden’s Covid-19 relief bill. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and The Nation’s Joan Walsh join MSNBC’s Ari Melber to discuss this historic drop in the poverty rate. (This interview is from MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber, a news show covering politics, law and culture airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC. ).

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73 comments

    1. @Louis Tully / idc either. I’m a truck driver in fly over country. Tax me more so my fellow Americans can have a better life.

    2. @Michael C, you don’t need the government to take your money to give to the needy. You can give to the needy all by yourself, and it’s way more efficient.

      By the way, did you know Biden used to be a truck driver?

    3. @Super Scary Russian Bot you don’t need the government to take your money to give to the drone Einsatzgruppen. You can give to the Department of “Defense” all by yourself, and it’s way more efficient.

    4. @Nota Bene, national security is the most justifiable reason for the federal government to take our money. Actually it’s one of the few reasons the federal government has to take our money.

    5. @Nota Bene / DoD and the Pentagon lost billions of dollars and Donald Rumsfeld was questions about the audit right before 9/11. The DoD needs defunded more than some. We’re not at war. Compared to what other countries spend on families and infrastructure, the U.S. is losing another type of war that will take an entire generation to catch up to. Guns and bombs don’t fix everything

    1. Have you read the Green New Deal? It’s only like six pages long. I keep a copy at my desk for a laugh ever now and then. I especially like the one liner about rebuilding every structure in America without any other information as to how much that would cost or who’s going to pay. It reads like a middle schooler’s idea of a utopia.

    2. @Super Scary Russian Bot lol yeah they want everyone to live in pods and eat bugs and not own anything 😂

    3. @JasonDrvmz, have you ever read the Green New Deal? It is hilariously short with insane change proposals and no details on how to implement any of them. It’s like a middle school homework assignment to create a new utopic economic system. I’m sure the advocates of the Green New Deal have never read it. They would be embarrassed if they had.

      Advocates think it’s like this enormous bill and thousands of pages outlining a new future in concise legal language. It’s not. Greta Thunberg could have wrote this in an afternoon.

    4. @JasonDrvmz you clearly have no clue what the definition of socialism is. Explain to me how capitalism like this is good when you have people living in tents in America. How is that something you’re proud of? Oh wait, just blame the poor people right? Because conservatives love to blame the victim

    5. @The Flame Fist God, what socialist country in history didn’t have poor people? You’re not one of those idealists are you?

    1. @DONNIE Trump Derek Chauvin has to go to his happy place every night in prison. How many bites of his pillow will he take before he eats it all?

    2. You are completely correct in your statement but I will say that I grew up in poverty and now I’m in my sixties and even managed to serve my country honorably and with distinction along the way. It may not be right but it is reality to so many people.

  1. Childhood poverty in America down 60% Thank you Oh Lord for President Joe Biden!!!!🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸

    1. @Matthew Huszarik, you said, “the increases in the poverty rate directly coincides with Republican Presidential administrations.” “Directly coincides” means no deviation. I was just pointing out an obvious deviation that makes your statement false.

    2. @Matthew Huszarik, I agree with you that we shouldn’t help the poor by increasing the deficit. I opposed the relief under Trump. I also oppose the relief under Biden. The ridiculous 45% poverty reduction projection that this news network cooked up is based off relief under Biden. It’s not based off a healthy economy or people going back to work.

    3. @Matthew Huszarik, Obama doubled the deficit from Bush. He never decreased the deficit. Trump increased it about 10% up until the covid relief at which point it blew up. That continued under Biden.

    4. @Super Scary Russian Bot Suffering Dunning-Kruger effect aren’t you. Do you have any understanding of the difference between the debt and the deficit? Probably not. Bush’s wars and lax banking practices blew up the economy in 2008, which exploded the federal budget deficit Obama’s first year. Obama cut the deficit every year after that until 2016 when it increased slightly as he brought the US economy back from the worst recession since the Great Depression at the time. Trump on the other hand gave tax cuts to the rich and corporations and increased the deficit every year he was in office. Then the pandemic hit and Trump’s mismanagement of it have resulted in the worst deficits in US history.

  2. You need Is to rethink that people live in on social security and the elderly .are having a hard time making ends meet. I like to see every one in government try to live on 794.00 a month. It’s about $4000 below poverty level

    1. Exactly,individuals receiving social security don’t seem to matter,just like the homeless. The average social security benefit should be at least $4,000 per month. Instead of measly bread crumbs.

    2. @Margaret Wordnerd I hear this same thing. I had to stop working at age 40 as a RN due to several chronic pain conditions including Fibromyalgia which I swear has a link to my sleeping disorder caused by doing day/night shifts often switching from nights to then having to go back to days with my day off being made to stay awake all day to flip myself back to having to get up that next morning. They did this to u all the time and everyone was sick all the time and depressed from being so messed up with our sleep cycles. Now I live on my measly disability and hear the same things you mentioned.

    3. I am retired, [ since 2016 ] When Dump economy good…A Dumpster [ a relative ] said, to me…There is plenty of jobs, thanks to Trump, only lazy people don’t have a job…Stop living off the Government [ Social Security ] and get a job…I said, I worked for 48 years, I am retired…He said, It is people like me, making Trump look bad…because I wanted Government hand outs….Karma works, he is now on Disability….Learn a lesson, don’t judge others, or you will be judged…

    4. @may wilson I’m curious to know, what does he say now that he’s on disability? He spends the money and goes for health care, right? He’ll probably say he is a special case who deserves it, as my loved ones told me when they were shocked that I hated it when they railed against welfare parasites. Very few are obnoxious enough to hurl such insults at someone they know.

    5. @Lisa Eischens I understand. I made it to 42 before I couldn’t do it. Arthritis and Fibromyalgia rule my life with pain 24/7 in spite of pretty good medical care. I can tell you not to let them bother you, but I still let it bother me. My mother’s health was so bad, SS approved her 1st application for life. A friend who worked for SS looked horrified and said softly, “They don’t think you’re going to live long.” Happily my mother is a stubborn woman. 40 yrs later she’s still telling stories to grandchildren, voting, and enjoying life. But after one of her stays in the ICU an acquaintance did tell Mom that it would be better for the US if she died soon. No personal hostility, she simply believed that disabled people should do the world a favor and stop breathing. Mom had considered that creature a friend. How do they sleep at night?

    1. Unfortunately, this data is untrue. The US poverty rate declined steadily to 9.2% in 2020. This year we are projected to be 13.7%. Do a quick search and you will see.

  3. I’m sure this is gonna make everyone happy Or I should say most People happy Because there will be some that won’t like this but good for president Biden.👍

    1. I think that is going to backfire on Joe because now these people have moved out of the poverty status and they will no longer be eligible for benefits. These people don’t have money, they have means and they will not qualify for the benefits they were accustomed to when they were living in poverty. I’m very happy for them, I think it’s great but now they are going to have to find some means of employment.

    2. @LG Roots, it’s remarkable how fast these viewers ate that ridiculously fake number up.

    1. @LG Roots If half the working population was unemployed, we’d be in the middle of an economic recession so massive, it would make the Great Depression look like a field of roses.

    2. It’s untrue. Last year our national poverty rate was 9.2%. This year we are projected to be at 13.2%. We would have to be at 5.1% by the end of the year for this to be true.

    3. @LG Roots Dump economy, just ment the rich was making money…The rich was providing more jobs, but not quality jobs…Poverty wages doesn’t make a good economy…Dump tax cuts, was BANKRUPTING USA…GOVERNMENT SPENDING WAS ONE TRILLION DOLLAR HIGHER THAN TAX INTAKE…THE RICH TAX BREAK WAS PERMANANT, THE TAX BREAK TO WORKING PEOPLE ENDS IN 2023…The USA will be better off, with higher corporate tax rate, [ maybe will cause less jobs ] the Infrastructure will put more tax money in coffers and create liveable wage jobs….Which would you rather have? A good quality job? or two Corporate low pay jobs? THAT IS THE CHOICE….The Child Tax Credit, is another way, to President Obama, tax credit…President Obama gave people a choice, receive a large check from EIC, at tax time..Or receive it through out the year…Very few chose, all year…..President Biden, accomplished same thing a different way…Once people receive they don’t give back…The monthly Child Tax Credit money means, NO BIG CHECK, IN JANUARY….LMFAO NOW THAT IS A GOTTCHA MOMENT……

    4. @may wilson, the US average wage increased an average of $845 per year under Obama and an average of $1,364 per year under Trump.

      I’m guessing you don’t have anything to back up your claims?

  4. Incredible. All we did was A reverse billionair tax cut. Turns out, scattering oats before Wrens works a lot better for Wrens than giving the Horse an extra helping. I wonder what the billionaires feel like when they get theirs, at a million times the dose.

    1. Unfortunately, this data is untrue. The US poverty rate declined steadily to 9.2% in 2020. This year we are projected to be 13.7%. Do a quick search and you will see.

    1. @Nota Bene, the official poverty rate for 2020 is 9.2% which is based on the IRS filings. I don’t know how you can get a more accurate estimate than that.

      I think it is a pretty meaningless statistic because it doesn’t account for cost of living. Obviously people who live in California make more to compensate for the higher cost of living than people in Kentucky. The living expenses are double in California, so you would expect the poverty line to also double, but it doesn’t. As a result, people living in low cost of living areas pay far less percentage in taxes and are much more likely to qualify for federal aid just because they live in a low cost area.

    2. @may wilson, they are just reporting on their own biased projection for 2021, not actual results. I’ve seen other projections that shows a 50% increase in poverty for 2021.

    3. @Oppressed Speaker of truth, yeah no kidding. For the -45% to be true, we would have to be at a 5.1% poverty rate right now. The record low is 9.2% under Trump. There’s no evidence we are at 5.1% and no way for anyone to know that until after tax season. What’s even more ridiculous, is that is lower than our unemployment rate. 😂😂😂 That never happens.

    4. Biden has not help any Americans FIncially. Everything more expensive and crime rates are up. Due to his policies.

  5. Great! But 10 bucks above the line isn’t where we should be “good enough” about. Let’s get some more Progressives in Congress and really make this American Dream thing come true!

    1. Getting term limits so 90 year olds aren’t making decisions about a world they’ve never lived in would help.

    2. @Yuma Yup. Folks expected folks to die (natural or duel) or have pressing business to attend to (grandkids). It’s pretty silly that we are still employing life expectancy from a hundred years ago to dictate current events.

  6. Democrats = want to help the children and people and the poor. Republicans = want to help the rich. What a difference

    1. The republicans block any thing Biden trys to do for the elderly S.S. needs a make over. Divorced women on S.S. can’t afford to pay rent on 800 dollars a month these women deserve 1200 a month these women are paying 70 and 80 percent of their income just for rent they aren’t asking for luxury they are asking for survival a roof over their heads to live the remainder of their lives with out being homeless and in poor health. Why is America allowing our grandmother’s to live in such poverty? They brag Abt women’s rights but where are the rights of our elderly women? They know this amount isn’t enough most of these women worked many many yrs while raising children not career women but women taking the Burden off their husband’s by supplementing by jobs like nursing homes Walmarts, restaurats and now old and divorced not only do the ex-husbands only have to pay a few yrs alimony the women are left with not enough to pay rent and not enough housing. Help the elderly women.

    2. @Princess Tiarra, do a quick google search of US poverty rate over the last six years. This data is false.

  7. Watch out USA! Keep doing this and you’ll be civilized like Scandinavian countries. No hungry children. No poverty

    1. Unfortunately, this data is untrue. The US poverty rate declined steadily to 9.2% in 2020. This year we are projected to be 13.7%. Do a quick search and you will see.

  8. Not one Republican voted for this. But they’ll take the money and take the credit. Thank you Dems and Biden Administration! Children are one-third of our population and all of our future!

    1. Not true.
      Your children are being replaced by the thousands.
      You will own nothing and like it

  9. Good thing rent was only deffered (not cancelled) and min wage was shot down.
    Once relief money is cut we re back to capitalism as usual!
    ‘Merica

  10. It is a joy to know that children can eat and have the basic necessities of life. I don’t see why that is asking for too much. Especially from the pro life party.

    1. That’s funny because this is false data. Do a quick search of US poverty rates if you don’t believe me. These people aren’t honest. They are just counting on your inability to do your own research.

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