Dear John,
Last month, the House passed a bill that uses the ongoing debate
around lifting the debt ceiling to force budget cuts to critical
federal programs that support the health and wellbeing of children and
youth.
Republicans' proposed cuts and revisions to crucial benefits for
low-income families will have a cruel and devastating effect on
children. Low-income families, particularly Black and Brown families,
are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, made worse by last
week's expiration of pandemic-era expanded assistance. Our
natural priority is to accelerate their recovery and provide our
children the supports they need to grow up with dignity, hope, and
joy. So we marvel at the moral bankruptcy of legislators who
vigorously and enthusiastically pull in the opposite
direction-who see 11 million children living in poverty and
conclude we need them poorer, or 9.3 million food-insecure children
and conclude that we need them hungrier, or 3.9 million children
without health coverage and conclude we need them sicker.?
This is not hyperbole. If Speaker McCarthy has his way, the families
of nearly one million children would lose income supports for rent,
utilities, and other essentials through new provisions to Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The reductions would plunge more
children into homelessness and, as our culture falsely conflates
poverty with neglect, would entangle them in a child welfare system
that is acutely unaccommodating of Black and Brown families. Cuts
would also endanger 900,000 older adults at risk of losing food
assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) and remove 10 million Americans from Medicaid rolls, shrinking
the "village" in which children find daily
support.?
Even more pernicious is the proposed reliance of each of these
benefits on expanded work requirements for beneficiaries, a provision
with a solid foundation in racial stereotyping, no foundation in
reality, and a despicable premise that a child's right to eat
relies on an adult's ability to work. In reality, most
beneficiaries already work. Yet, some might have health conditions or
work low-wage jobs with little control over their hours. For families
with children, an expanded work provision clashes with the realities
of child care, a cost that exceeds that of public college in 35 states
and claims one-third of a single parent's salary in all but
seven states. Even if affordable, child care is often inaccessible
with center care supply falling 3.6 million slots short of current
demand-a demand the proposal aims to reduce by blocking child
care subsidies for 180,000 children.??
Study upon study has shown us that work requirements are effective for
precisely one thing: not for increasing employment, not for lifting
Americans out of poverty, but for denying benefits to needy families
and making children poorer, hungrier, and sicker. Children's
Defense Fund unites its voice with the Congressional Black Caucus, the
Congressional Progressive Caucus, and our institutional and grassroots
partners across the nation in declaring work requirements a
non-starter in any deal to raise the debt ceiling.
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We call on Speaker McCarthy and his colleagues to pay the
country's bills without forcing our children to bear the cost.
We call on President Biden to stand firm in his opposition to work
requirements and to honor his commitment to rejecting any provision
that increases poverty. I invite my colleagues leading faith
communities across the nation to join the chorus of voices in this
moment imploring federal leaders to care for the last and the least
and to promote the common good. And I call on you to take action now
and tell Congress to stop budget cuts for America's children,
youth, and families.
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A society articulates its values in its policies and budgets. What
Congress does these next few weeks will speak volumes of our
collective values. And make no mistake: Our children are
listening.
For our children,
Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson
President and CEO
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