[ New poverty data reveals the effectiveness of pandemic aid
programs that are now expired. For poor Americans, building on that
success is a matter of life and death.]
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POOR PEOPLE WILL BE VOTING FOR THEIR LIVES IN THE MIDTERMS  
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Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Tope Folarin
September 22, 2022
Newsweek
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_ New poverty data reveals the effectiveness of pandemic aid programs
that are now expired. For poor Americans, building on that success is
a matter of life and death. _

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We are once again in a moment of extreme division, with rising
assaults on democracy and levels of racism, sexism, and inequality
that are tearing our country apart. There is no scarcity of solutions,
but there is a scarcity of political will to do the right thing.

This may be about to change.

With Congress [[link removed]] failing to
extend vital safety net programs created during the pandemic, poor and
low-income people will be voting for their lives in this year’s
midterms.

Despite all the challenges of the pandemic and other barriers to voter
participation, 58 million
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and low-income Americans turned out for the 2020 election. They did
not vote for a return to “normal.”

For everyone to thrive, we must do much more to tackle the
interlocking injustices that long pre-date the COVID-19 crisis—the
injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and
militarism.

Two years after that election, we can point to some hopeful signs that
the bold social and economic transformation we need is indeed
possible.

Just-released Census statistics
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a decline in the share of Americans who were living in poverty in
2021. Most striking: a drop in the child poverty rate from 9.7 percent
in 2020 to 5.2 percent last year. The number of Americans who are
either poor or low-income dropped from about 140 million
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million in 2021.

This was not just some fluke. In the face of the pandemic crisis, poor
and low-income people have effectively mobilized for policy change.

Thousands of activists with the Poor People's Campaign and other
organizations have participated in caravans, rallies, and acts of
non-violent civil disobedience. Low-income West Virginians practically
set up camp outside Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin
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Some 100,000 converged on Washington, D.C., in June to make their
voices heard. Poor and low-income people know that, even with a 20
percent drop in poverty, inequality still leads to hundreds of
unnecessary deaths every day
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In response to this sustained pressure, Congress has passed several
bills that move the country in the right direction. The American
Rescue Plan drove the drop in poverty
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2021 by temporarily expanding the Child Tax Credit and the Earned
Income Tax Credit, along with other anti-poverty provisions.

A few months later, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act [[link removed]],
creating good jobs to improve our roads and bridges, replace lead
pipes and expand public transit, and broaden access to high-speed
internet.

This summer's Inflation Reduction Act will lower home energy bills
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drug prices
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health-care subsidies
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and raise new revenue
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big corporations and the wealthy. President Biden also reduced student
debts for tens of millions of borrowers.

Poor and low-income people and their advocates should feel proud of
these achievements. We have shown that while the rich win most of the
time in Washington, they don't win every single time.

And yet, the road to transformation remains long—and is still tilted
in favor of the wealthy.

Pandemic policies that reduced poverty in 2021, including expanded
unemployment insurance and child and earned income tax credits, have
expired, leaving 40 percent
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the country struggling to pay their bills. Meanwhile, efforts to tax
billionaires' pandemic windfalls have failed, leaving the ultra-rich
with trillions more in wealth
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before Covid.

While wealthy landlords, affluent homebuyers, and interest rate hikes
push the cost of housing ever upward, many local officials have
focused on criminalizing homelessness
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And Congress has failed to raise the minimum wage, reinstate the
pandemic eviction moratorium, or invest in affordable housing so that
everyone can have a roof over their head.

Biden's plan to cancel as much as $20,000 in student debt is welcome
news for struggling families. But that maximum is less than a quarter
of the average Paycheck Protection Program subsidy
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COVID-19 initiative that mostly benefited larger businesses
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New legislation will assist the poor with their energy bills, but rich
fossil fuel company executives and shareholders stand to reap bigger
benefits
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expanded tax credits and oil and gas leases on federal lands.

And while many politicians push to cut pandemic aid and slash the
growing wages for working people they falsely blame
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inflation, mega-millionaire military contractor CEOs have nothing to
fear. In July, the House passed a record-breaking $839 billion
Pentagon budget
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But this isn't the only way our government can work.

In 2021, our organizations worked with Congressional Progressive
Caucus leaders to articulate a bold, moral vision for our country.
The Third Reconstruction Resolution
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on the transformational history of the First Reconstruction following
the Civil War and the Second Reconstruction of the 20th century civil
rights movement. In these two historic periods of severe strife and
exploitation, multi-racial coalitions persevered and achieved
significant strides towards racial and economic justice.

And here we find ourselves again and still.

As the Poor People's Campaign has held voter mobilization events
around the country, we've seen how the most marginalized are building
the power to revive our Constitution's commitments to establish
justice, promote the general welfare, and ensure equal protection
under the law.

We've made some steps towards these moral principles. But the process
of reconstruction is only beginning.

_Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is a national co-chair of the Poor
People's Campaign: A Call for Moral Revival. _

_Tope Folarin is the executive director of the Institute for Policy
Studies._

* Poor People's Campaign
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* Build Back Better
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* voter mobilization
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