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A shopper and cashier interact at the checkout station at Pat's Farms grocery store on March 31, 2020 in Merrick, New York. (Photo: Al Bello via Getty Images)
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing spike in unemployment, poverty in the U.S. declined by roughly 2.6% from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the federal government's expansion of the social safety net, new data released Tuesday shows.
"When government responds to the needs of the working class, millions of families are lifted out of poverty."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
For the first time since 2011, median household income decreased last year, and the official poverty rate rose, from 10.5% in 2019 to 11.4% in 2020. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure (SPM), which takes into account additional expenses plus the value of government aid, the poverty rate fell to 9.1% last year, compared with 11.8% the previous year.
While more than 37 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty in 2020 based on the official rate, economic hardship would have grown even worse had Congress not passed multiple pieces of coronavirus relief legislation allocating billions of dollars in financial assistance, including two one-time payments to most households, boosted unemployment insurance (UI), and increased food benefits.
In 2020, the SPM rate (9.1%) was lower than the official poverty rate (11.4%) for "the first time," the Census Bureau said. Without the two rounds of stimulus checks, which "helped lift 11.7 million people out of poverty," the SPM rate would have increased by about 3.6 percentage points, according to officials. Expanded UI benefits, meanwhile, "prevented 5.5 million individuals from falling into poverty."
Progressives regarded the findings as fresh evidence that government intervention and social programs can generate significant material improvements in peoples' lives.
\u201cBREAKING: Giving people money is a great way to fight poverty.\u201d— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (@Jamaal Bowman Ed.D) 1631644630
"The fact that the supplemental poverty rate dropped during the Covid-19 crisis is a huge victory for advocates of expanding the social safety net," Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, said in a statement. "Hunger Free America has long advocated for stronger federal benefits, and the latest data bolsters proof that a strong social safety net works to lift tens of millions out of poverty and hunger."
"Despite 38 million Americans still struggling with food insecurity in 2020," Berg continued, "the expansion of SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits and unemployment insurance in addition to stimulus checks and the Pandemic EBT [Electronic Benefit Transfer] program, kept tens of millions of Americans from falling into poverty."
Berg added that "the federal government should continue to build upon this momentum by strengthening the social safety net in addition to raising the federal minimum wage so that working families can afford their basic living expenses."
Berg's assessment was shared by journalist Jeff Stein.
"During one of the worst labor market shocks in U.S. history," Stein noted, the "the poverty rate fell in 2020" because direct cash support and other forms of federal relief approved in response to the coronavirus crisis "reached millions both in and outside the workforce." The new Census figures, he argued, provide evidence of the need to supplement employment-based income with public benefits to slash poverty.
\u201cAbsolutely incredible: Census says poverty rate **fell** in 2020 ***during one of the worst labor market shocks in US history***, due to the combo of stimulus checks/federal relief that reached millions both in and outside the workforce. Reflects limits of jobs to reduce poverty.\u201d— Jeff Stein (@Jeff Stein) 1631628854
According to University of Notre Dame economics professor James Sullivan, "it's very clear" that the federal government's swift and substantial response to the public health and economic emergency that began 18 months ago "prevented a sharp rise in poverty." He warned that there is a "concern that we would see poverty rise again because we've now seen these relief packages expire."
"The federal government should continue to build upon this momentum by strengthening the social safety net in addition to raising the federal minimum wage so that working families can afford their basic living expenses."
--Joel Berg, Hunger Free America
While the Biden administration received praise from progressives last month for approving the largest permanent expansion of food benefits in the history of SNAP, other pandemic-related anti-poverty measures have begun to expire.
Last week, more than nine million workers saw their expanded UI benefits come to an end. Lawmakers let the jobless aid lapse amid a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations and despite the Supreme Court's nullification of the national eviction moratorium.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, weighed in Tuesday, arguing that the new Census report reveals the importance of strengthening the social welfare state and making permanent initiatives that reduce economic hardship.
"What the data tell us is clear," said Sanders. "When government responds to the needs of the working class, millions of families are lifted out of poverty."
"We must not stop here," he added. "We must pass the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill and invest in working families."
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing spike in unemployment, poverty in the U.S. declined by roughly 2.6% from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the federal government's expansion of the social safety net, new data released Tuesday shows.
"When government responds to the needs of the working class, millions of families are lifted out of poverty."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
For the first time since 2011, median household income decreased last year, and the official poverty rate rose, from 10.5% in 2019 to 11.4% in 2020. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure (SPM), which takes into account additional expenses plus the value of government aid, the poverty rate fell to 9.1% last year, compared with 11.8% the previous year.
While more than 37 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty in 2020 based on the official rate, economic hardship would have grown even worse had Congress not passed multiple pieces of coronavirus relief legislation allocating billions of dollars in financial assistance, including two one-time payments to most households, boosted unemployment insurance (UI), and increased food benefits.
In 2020, the SPM rate (9.1%) was lower than the official poverty rate (11.4%) for "the first time," the Census Bureau said. Without the two rounds of stimulus checks, which "helped lift 11.7 million people out of poverty," the SPM rate would have increased by about 3.6 percentage points, according to officials. Expanded UI benefits, meanwhile, "prevented 5.5 million individuals from falling into poverty."
Progressives regarded the findings as fresh evidence that government intervention and social programs can generate significant material improvements in peoples' lives.
\u201cBREAKING: Giving people money is a great way to fight poverty.\u201d— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (@Jamaal Bowman Ed.D) 1631644630
"The fact that the supplemental poverty rate dropped during the Covid-19 crisis is a huge victory for advocates of expanding the social safety net," Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, said in a statement. "Hunger Free America has long advocated for stronger federal benefits, and the latest data bolsters proof that a strong social safety net works to lift tens of millions out of poverty and hunger."
"Despite 38 million Americans still struggling with food insecurity in 2020," Berg continued, "the expansion of SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits and unemployment insurance in addition to stimulus checks and the Pandemic EBT [Electronic Benefit Transfer] program, kept tens of millions of Americans from falling into poverty."
Berg added that "the federal government should continue to build upon this momentum by strengthening the social safety net in addition to raising the federal minimum wage so that working families can afford their basic living expenses."
Berg's assessment was shared by journalist Jeff Stein.
"During one of the worst labor market shocks in U.S. history," Stein noted, the "the poverty rate fell in 2020" because direct cash support and other forms of federal relief approved in response to the coronavirus crisis "reached millions both in and outside the workforce." The new Census figures, he argued, provide evidence of the need to supplement employment-based income with public benefits to slash poverty.
\u201cAbsolutely incredible: Census says poverty rate **fell** in 2020 ***during one of the worst labor market shocks in US history***, due to the combo of stimulus checks/federal relief that reached millions both in and outside the workforce. Reflects limits of jobs to reduce poverty.\u201d— Jeff Stein (@Jeff Stein) 1631628854
According to University of Notre Dame economics professor James Sullivan, "it's very clear" that the federal government's swift and substantial response to the public health and economic emergency that began 18 months ago "prevented a sharp rise in poverty." He warned that there is a "concern that we would see poverty rise again because we've now seen these relief packages expire."
"The federal government should continue to build upon this momentum by strengthening the social safety net in addition to raising the federal minimum wage so that working families can afford their basic living expenses."
--Joel Berg, Hunger Free America
While the Biden administration received praise from progressives last month for approving the largest permanent expansion of food benefits in the history of SNAP, other pandemic-related anti-poverty measures have begun to expire.
Last week, more than nine million workers saw their expanded UI benefits come to an end. Lawmakers let the jobless aid lapse amid a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations and despite the Supreme Court's nullification of the national eviction moratorium.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, weighed in Tuesday, arguing that the new Census report reveals the importance of strengthening the social welfare state and making permanent initiatives that reduce economic hardship.
"What the data tell us is clear," said Sanders. "When government responds to the needs of the working class, millions of families are lifted out of poverty."
"We must not stop here," he added. "We must pass the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill and invest in working families."
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing spike in unemployment, poverty in the U.S. declined by roughly 2.6% from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the federal government's expansion of the social safety net, new data released Tuesday shows.
"When government responds to the needs of the working class, millions of families are lifted out of poverty."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
For the first time since 2011, median household income decreased last year, and the official poverty rate rose, from 10.5% in 2019 to 11.4% in 2020. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure (SPM), which takes into account additional expenses plus the value of government aid, the poverty rate fell to 9.1% last year, compared with 11.8% the previous year.
While more than 37 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty in 2020 based on the official rate, economic hardship would have grown even worse had Congress not passed multiple pieces of coronavirus relief legislation allocating billions of dollars in financial assistance, including two one-time payments to most households, boosted unemployment insurance (UI), and increased food benefits.
In 2020, the SPM rate (9.1%) was lower than the official poverty rate (11.4%) for "the first time," the Census Bureau said. Without the two rounds of stimulus checks, which "helped lift 11.7 million people out of poverty," the SPM rate would have increased by about 3.6 percentage points, according to officials. Expanded UI benefits, meanwhile, "prevented 5.5 million individuals from falling into poverty."
Progressives regarded the findings as fresh evidence that government intervention and social programs can generate significant material improvements in peoples' lives.
\u201cBREAKING: Giving people money is a great way to fight poverty.\u201d— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (@Jamaal Bowman Ed.D) 1631644630
"The fact that the supplemental poverty rate dropped during the Covid-19 crisis is a huge victory for advocates of expanding the social safety net," Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, said in a statement. "Hunger Free America has long advocated for stronger federal benefits, and the latest data bolsters proof that a strong social safety net works to lift tens of millions out of poverty and hunger."
"Despite 38 million Americans still struggling with food insecurity in 2020," Berg continued, "the expansion of SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits and unemployment insurance in addition to stimulus checks and the Pandemic EBT [Electronic Benefit Transfer] program, kept tens of millions of Americans from falling into poverty."
Berg added that "the federal government should continue to build upon this momentum by strengthening the social safety net in addition to raising the federal minimum wage so that working families can afford their basic living expenses."
Berg's assessment was shared by journalist Jeff Stein.
"During one of the worst labor market shocks in U.S. history," Stein noted, the "the poverty rate fell in 2020" because direct cash support and other forms of federal relief approved in response to the coronavirus crisis "reached millions both in and outside the workforce." The new Census figures, he argued, provide evidence of the need to supplement employment-based income with public benefits to slash poverty.
\u201cAbsolutely incredible: Census says poverty rate **fell** in 2020 ***during one of the worst labor market shocks in US history***, due to the combo of stimulus checks/federal relief that reached millions both in and outside the workforce. Reflects limits of jobs to reduce poverty.\u201d— Jeff Stein (@Jeff Stein) 1631628854
According to University of Notre Dame economics professor James Sullivan, "it's very clear" that the federal government's swift and substantial response to the public health and economic emergency that began 18 months ago "prevented a sharp rise in poverty." He warned that there is a "concern that we would see poverty rise again because we've now seen these relief packages expire."
"The federal government should continue to build upon this momentum by strengthening the social safety net in addition to raising the federal minimum wage so that working families can afford their basic living expenses."
--Joel Berg, Hunger Free America
While the Biden administration received praise from progressives last month for approving the largest permanent expansion of food benefits in the history of SNAP, other pandemic-related anti-poverty measures have begun to expire.
Last week, more than nine million workers saw their expanded UI benefits come to an end. Lawmakers let the jobless aid lapse amid a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations and despite the Supreme Court's nullification of the national eviction moratorium.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, weighed in Tuesday, arguing that the new Census report reveals the importance of strengthening the social welfare state and making permanent initiatives that reduce economic hardship.
"What the data tell us is clear," said Sanders. "When government responds to the needs of the working class, millions of families are lifted out of poverty."
"We must not stop here," he added. "We must pass the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill and invest in working families."
"This was an illegal act," said U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis.
A federal court judge on Sunday declared the Trump administration's refusal to return a man they sent to an El Salvadoran prison in "error" as "totally lawless" behavior and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to repatriate the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, within 24 hours.
In a 22-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis doubled down on an order issued Friday, which Department of Justice lawyers representing the administration said was an affront to his executive authority.
"This was an illegal act," Xinis said of DHS Secretary Krisi Noem's attack on Abrego Garcia's rights, including his deportation and imprisonment.
"Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of [immigration law]," the decision states.
Once imprisoned in El Salvador, the order continues, "U.S. officials secured his detention in a facility that, by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence; and places him with his persecutors."
Trump's DOJ appealed Friday's order to 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, but that court has not yet ruled on the request to stay the order from Xinis, which says Abrego Garcia should be returned to the United States no later than Monday.
"You'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes," warned Sen. Ron Wyden, "including American citizens."
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon slammed the Trump administration over the weekend in response to fresh reporting that the Department of Homeland Security has intensified its push for access to confidential data held by the Internal Revenue Service—part of a sweeping effort to target immigrant workers who pay into the U.S. tax system yet get little or nothing in return.
Wyden denounced the effort, which had the fingerprints of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, all over it.
"What Trump and Musk's henchmen are doing by weaponizing taxpayer data is illegal, this abuse of the immigrant community is a moral atrocity, and you'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes, including American citizens," said Wyden, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, on Saturday.
Last week, the White House admitted one of the men it has sent to a prison in El Salvador was detained and deported in schackles in "error." Despite the admitted mistake, and facing a lawsuit for his immediate return, the Trump administration says a federal court has no authority over the president to make such an order.
"Even though the Trump administration claims it's focused on undocumented immigrants, it's obvious that they do not care when they make mistakes and ruin the lives of legal residents and American citizens in the process," Wyden continued. "A repressive scheme on the scale of what they're talking about at the IRS would lead to hundreds if not thousands of those horrific mistakes, and the people who are disappeared as a result may never be returned to their families."
According to the Washington Post reporting on Saturday:
Federal immigration officials are seeking to locate up to 7 million people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully by accessing confidential tax data at the Internal Revenue Service, according to six people familiar with the request, a dramatic escalation in how the Trump administration aims to use the tax system to detain and deport immigrants.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security had previously sought the IRS’s help in finding 700,000 people who are subject to final removal orders, and they had asked the IRS to use closely guarded taxpayer data systems to provide names and addresses.
As the Post notes, it would be highly unusual, and quite possibly unlawful, for the IRS to share such confidential data. "Normally," the newspaper reports, "personal tax information—even an individual's name and address—is considered confidential and closely guarded within the IRS."
Wyden warned that those who violate the law by disclosing personal tax data face the risk of civil sanction or even prosecution.
"While Trump's sycophants and the DOGE boys may be a lost cause," Wyden said, "IRS personnel need to think long and hard about whether they want to be a part of an effort to round up innocent people and send them to be locked away in foreign torture prisons."
"I'm sure Trump has promised pardons to the people who will commit crimes in the process of abusing legally-protected taxpayer data, but violations of taxpayer privacy laws carry hefty civil penalties too, and Trump cannot pardon anybody out from under those," he said. "I'm going to demand answers from the acting IRS commissioner immediately about this outrageous abuse of the agency.”
"I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision," says the independent Senator from Vermont, "and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision."
"I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.'"
That's what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday morning in response to questions from CBS News about the state of the nation, with President Donald Trump gutting the federal government from head to toe, challenging constitutional norms, allowing his cabinet of billionaires to run key agencies they philosophically want to destroy, and empowering Elon Musk—the world's richest person—to run roughshod over public education, undermine healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and attack Social Security.
Taking a weekend away from his ongoing "Fight Oligarchy" tour, which has drawn record crowds in both right-leaning and left-leaning regions of the country over recent weeks, Sanders said the problem is deeply entrenched now in the nation's political system—and both major parties have a lot to answer for.
"One of the other concerns when I talk about oligarchy," Sanders explained to journalist Robert Acosta, "it's not just massive income and wealth inequality. It's not just the power of the billionaire class. These guys, led by Musk—and as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision—have now allowed billionaires essentially to own our political process. So, I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.' And it's not just Musk and the Republicans; it's billionaires in the Democratic Party as well."
Sanders said that while he's been out on the road in various places, what he perceives—from Americans of all stripes—is a shared sense of dread and frustration.
"I think I'm seeing fear, and I'm seeing anger," he said. "Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Media doesn't talk about it. We don't talk about it enough here in Congress."
In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Friday night, just before the Republican-controlled chamber was able to pass a sweeping spending resolution that will lay waste to vital programs like Medicaid and food assistance to needy families so that billionaires and the ultra-rich can enjoy even more tax giveaways, Sanders said, "What we have is a budget proposal in front of us that makes bad situations much worse and does virtually nothing to protect the needs of working families."
LIVE: I'm on the floor now talking about Trump's totally absurd budget.
They got it exactly backwards. No tax cuts for billionaires by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for Americans. https://t.co/ULB2KosOSJ
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 4, 2025
What the GOP spending plan does do, he added, "is reward wealthy campaign contributors by providing over $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top one percent."
"I wish my Republican friends the best of luck when they go home—if they dare to hold town hall meetings—and explain to their constituents why they think, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it's a great idea to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut Medicaid, education, and other programs that working class families desperately need."
On Saturday, millions of people took to the street in coordinated protests against the Trump administration's attack on government, the economy, and democracy itself.
Voiced at many of the rallies was also a frustration with the failure of the Democrats to stand up to Trump and offer an alternative vision for what the nation can be. In his CBS News interview, Sanders said the key question Democrats need to be asking is the one too many people in Washington, D.C. tend to avoid.
"Why are [the Democrats] held in so low esteem?" That's the question that needs asking, he said.
"Why has the working class in this country largely turned away from them? And what do you have to do to recapture that working class? Do you think working people are voting for Trump because he wants to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and cut Social Security and Medicare? I don't think so. It's because people say, 'I am hurting. Democratic Party has talked a good game for years. They haven't done anything.' So, I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision, and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision, which side are they on? [Will] they continue to hustle large campaign contributions from very, very wealthy people, or do they stand with the working class?"
The next leg of Sanders' "Fight Oligarchy' tour will kick off next Saturday, with stops in California, Utah, and Idaho over four days.
"The American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, do not want billionaires to control our government or buy our elections," said Sanders. "That is why I will be visiting Republican-held districts all over the Western United States. When we are organized and fight back, we can defeat oligarchy."