One in six Americans, roughly 50 million citizens are living in poverty according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Instead of extending a helping hand to the most vulnerable populations, recent bipartisan cuts of $85 billion are expected hit those in poverty the hardest.
These reductions that went into effect in February, come as part of the broader sequestration cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, designed to slash the national deficit that stands at more than $16 trillion.
The cuts are already having an impact in poor communities across the U.S., where one in five children are living in poverty. Included in Washington’s cuts are reductions in funding to essential social programs like the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National School Lunch Program.
The program provides 31 million impoverished children with low-cost or free breakfasts and lunches at school each day. For many children, these are the only meals that they receive because their homes are too poor to afford healthy foods.
Additionally, roughly $600 million is set to be cut from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program For Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a program providing nutritious food subsidies to poor pregnant women, as well as poor women with infants and children under the age of 5.
Anywhere from 575,000 to 750,000 low-income women and children who qualify for the program, which serves about 9 million people, will now be turned away.
Both parties claim that the cuts are about fiscal responsibility and reducing the national deficit. For those working to preserve the social safety net and help vulnerable communities, this is a spurious notion.
“Let’s be clear about one thing: the harsh automatic budget cuts of the sequester that will kick in on March 1 have nothing to do with responsible fiscal policy,” writes Jed Lewison, a contributor for the Daily Kos.
“They are a political gimmick run amok and despite their bipartisan origins, the political party that is now most intent on wielding them as a weapon is the GOP. Their goal: enact deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits while preserving benefits from tax loopholes and deductions for the wealthiest Americans.”
Despite meeting with key Republican leaders, including Senators John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) during a dinner in early March, the president was not able to broker a deal between the two parties that would have avoided the automatic spending cuts. Since the cuts went into effect, there has been relatively little discussion in Washington about the need to reinstate funding to key social programs.
Evidence of tax cuts, loopholes and deductions has lead to a growing wealth gap between rich and poor in the U.S. economic data shows that the modest gains of post-2008 economic recovery appear to have gone, almost exclusively, to the wealthiest Americans. The Brookings Institute, a leading think tank based in Washington, D.C., reported last month that economic inequality economic trends show the wealth gap growing in 2013.
This continues decades of wealth consolidation in the hands of elite few. From 1970-2008, the top .1 percent of earners, those making $1.7 million or more each year, saw their share of national wealth skyrocket 385 percent, driven largely by Reagan-era tax cuts.
Conversely, the bottom 90 percent of earners saw their real share of income decline by roughly 1 percent over the same period.
The cuts are also expected to hurt the U.S. middle class, considered the driving force for economic growth and prosperity in the nation. The White House warned in February that cuts to funding for government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, among others, could result in the loss of “hundreds of thousands of middle class jobs.”