Blame COVID not JOE-VID: U.S. Poverty rate jumps for the 1st time in 13 years

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Ah, Bidenomics – that modern marvel of fiscal engineering, and lucky, LUCKY us.

Now they’re gettin’ it.”

…the skeevy old charlatan whispered to the audience.

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You bet we’re “gettin’ it,” Gramps – everyone’s gettin’ it good and hard.

The poverty rate in the United States increased last year, the first increase in 13 years, according to the Census Bureau.

In 2022, the poverty rate was 12.4%, up 4.6% from 2021, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which looks at government programs and tax credits designed to help low-income families, according to the census.

…The poverty rate among children saw a sizeable increase, more than doubling from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% last year, census data shows.

The increase in the child poverty rate comes after the child tax credit expansion ended on Dec. 31, 2021.

Of course, much like the tap-dancing from the military yesterday, the rise in the poverty rate was attributable to COVID-era largesse polices being allowed to lapse, not JOE-VID’s economic follies, lollies, and jollies. POTATUS bellyaching at the GOP congress rings a little bit hollow.

Before the child tax credit expansion, one in three children around the country were not eligible for the full Child Tax Credit because the income of their families was too low, according to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

President Biden, who had touted the enhanced child tax credit as cutting child poverty in half, sharply criticized congressional Republicans Tuesday for not extending the child tax credit, saying today’s numbers on child poverty are a consequence of their refusal to extend the credit.

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Only in Democratic/Progressive #mathz would ending a TWO year old program cause poverty to spike for the FIRST time in THIRTEEN years. What was happening to those 1 in 3 households with children the other 11 years before the program? Obviously economic conditions must have worsened in tandem with the two years of the COVID credit for households not to be returning to similar status situations of the previous 11 years.

Republicans didn’t do that.

But we know who did.

[Beege update: Let me also add that the flood of illegals over the border just might have something to do with the 2022 rate rising, as well, as people have reminded me. I knew the numbers came from census figures, and forgot they NOW include illegals, aliens, whoever and whatever in their counts, so YEAH. And Republicans didn’t let THEM in, either.]

Nobody’s buying the Bidenomics malarky. They weren’t back in June.

President Joe Biden made his pitch Wednesday to a skeptical public that the U.S. economy is thriving under what he now touts as “Bidenomics” — even as a new poll showed that could be a hard sell as the foundation for his 2024 reelection campaign.

In a major economic speech in Chicago, Biden said his administration’s efforts were sparking recovery after Republican policies had crushed America’s middle class. But the poll said only one in three U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership.

That 34% figure is even lower than his overall approval rating of 41%, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

…“Bidenomics is about the future,” he declared in his Wednesday speech to cheering supporters. “Bidenomics is just another way of saying: Restore the American dream.”

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Even fewer Americans are falling for it now.

And about that “American dream.” Wasn’t part of that always owning a house, JOE-VID? Bidenomics and the geniuses you have aimlessly wandering the halls at Treasury and the Fed have taken that off the table, not Republicans.

The wee globe-trotting gnome doesn’t understand why Americans aren’t feelin’ the Bidenomics love.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said there is a “disconnect” between the actual performance of the U.S. economy and how Americans feel about how President Joe Biden has handled it.

The negative opinions that Americans share in polls on the economy “mainly reflects their answers on how is the economy more broadly doing,” Yellen said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

A “disconnect” is it? Her argle-bargle is as incomprehensible as her standing in front of an isolated African hut with a renewable energy flyer in her hand. No one is more disconnected from reality than the malevolent, incompetent clowns in this administration.

To be fair, it’s not just Yellen and Powell treating money like drunk monkeys (See? I didn’t impugne sailors.). I think every Biden administration toady has billions in a satchel to wave around and hand out for ridiculous crap.

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Key ‘Bidenomics’ architect calls for spending ‘race to the top’ on green tech

…Speaking in an interview with the Guardian, she said the Biden administration’s decision to plough billions of dollars of public money into infrastructure and renewables was “crowding in” private investment – helping to put the world’s largest economy in a stronger position to avoid recession.

“We’re working with our friends and allies to incentivise them to do the same – because we all need to make these investments,” she said.

“Billions of dollars of investment all around the country – private dollars, in semiconductors and clean energy – has been incentivised by this public spend. Actually a lot of the public money hasn’t even gone out yet and the private sector is swooping in.”

You bet they’re “swooping in,” you moron. They’re called “carrion crows” and they feast on the free, rotted remains littering the highway. The people in New England who didn’t vote for POTATUS are watching oil on the escalator to “OMG, we’re going to freeze to death this winter,” and won’t be thanking any of you for the billions of tax dollars you’re dumping into unicorn farts.

Stocks are tanking because Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve gurus are meeting. Everyone is on edge about the possibility of yet another interest rate hike and terrified of what’s going to happen because of their rapid and unbridled interest raises so far.

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Stocks retreated on Tuesday as Wall Street awaited the results of this week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 257 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 slid 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8%.

Deere, often seen as a barometer of future economic activity, fell more than 2% in the session. The drop came after Evercore ISI downgraded the stock to in-line from outperform due to agricultural production cuts.

The central bank’s two-day meeting begins on Tuesday. The Fed is not expected to raise rates when announcing its decision Wednesday, with traders pricing in a 99% probability that the central bank skips a hike, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, a gauge of pricing in fed funds futures. Traders are putting just a 29% chance of a hike in November.

There is zero confidence in these guys.

…Also, the rapidity of rate hikes increases the chance their cumulative impact has yet to be fully felt. The Fed has raised rates by 525 bps in a little over a year, taking them to 5.5%, only 100 bps below the median peak of 6.5% they reach at the end of previous hiking cycles.

It’s even more dramatic when you consider rates were virtually at 0% when the Fed started raising them. In geometric terms, rates have risen faster than they ever have before. The Fed has enough justification to take its foot off the brake altogether.

Is it a landing of any kind or a crash and burn?

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Who knows?

No one’s ever done anything quite this badly on purpose before.

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David Strom 5:20 PM | May 01, 2024
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