CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Our Safety Net Was Already Full of Holes. Now They’re Only Getting Bigger

Homeless camp, Portland, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Back when I was growing up, it seemed a bit easier to get by on next to nothing.

People could afford food and shelter on a working-class wage and get a little help from safety net programs when needed. But since the 1990s, the cost of housing and healthcare has increasingly exceeded wage growth. We’re also paying a larger share of our income on food now.

Even as recently as 2021, an expanded Child Tax Credit, stronger unemployment insurance, and health care programs were keeping people out of poverty — even slashing child poverty in half. But spending hawks in Congress refused to renew these pandemic-era social programs, and poverty spiked right back up.

Under this administration and Congress, things are even worse. Already, thin assistance programs have been slashed to fund tax cuts for billionaires and more endless wars.

Even before these latest cuts, it was clear we needed a stronger safety net with less red........

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