Biden in 2021: «We can cut child poverty in half this year». US, 2021: 5.1%; in 2022: 12%
Joe Biden31 March 2021 · speech on the American Jobs Plan in Pittsburgh
«We can cut child poverty in half this year.»
SPM child poverty fell to 5.1% in 2021 (12.5% in 2019) and returned to 12.0% in 2022.
In 2019, 12.5% of children were poor. The larger child tax credit ran for one year; it was not extended, and poverty came back.
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The US president promised that a new family aid law would halve the share of poor children in a year. Within the year it did, but when the payments ended the share rose again.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- Joe Biden, speech on the American Jobs Plan in Pittsburgh quote
«We can cut child poverty in half this year.»
- What happened came true, then undone
SPM child poverty fell to 5.1% in 2021 (12.5% in 2019) and returned to 12.0% in 2022.
Quote: Joe Biden’s speech of 31 March 2021. Fact: US Census Bureau, report P60-290, Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), historical tables. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The promise concerned the expanded Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan; it applied only in 2021. The supplemental measure counts benefits and tax credits, the official one does not. Half here is of 2019, before the pandemic; counted from 2020 (9.6%) half is 4.8%.
A question for this picture
Is poverty that leaves with a payment and returns without it reduced poverty?