With more child poverty, recovery elusive: #tellusatoday

In 2013, about 22% of children in the U.S. lived below the poverty line, up from 18% in 2008, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

This is not something to be proud of. Shame. With all the tax dollars collected from those who actually pay taxes, not enough is being done to educate and lift these citizens up.

— Susie Duncan Williams

We can still feel the ripples of George W. Bush’s economy.

Take note that the most current numbers cited are from 2013. I wonder how people are faring now that the unemployment rate is at 5.3%.

— Mike García

How about eight more years of failed supply-side, trickle-down economics? It has been a failure since Ronald Reagan started us down that rabbit hole. Both parties are guilty and owned by corporate America.

It’s time for real change. Scandinavia has some great examples of a free-market economy with strong social programs.

Maybe Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate, knows something that bought-and-paid-for politicians don’t.

— T Edward Wetmore

Our government and entitlement programs essentially reward people for having children when they can’t afford them. Government pays for your family’s food and health care and offers Pell Grants to pay for college. Middle-class people can’t afford to have kids anymore — or at least not more than one kid — because everything is so expensive, from child care to health insurance to college tuition. Giving birth to more kids in poverty won’t improve our country.

— Jenna Schmidt Gonzalez

It’s sad that these children seem predestined to suffer and can do little to nothing about it. It is hard, if not impossible, to eliminate all poverty, but it does not make it any less tragic. No matter what anyone says, the lot of the poor never changes.

— Bruce Mort

History shows the best thing to reduce poverty is an expanding economy. A rising tide lifts all boats. We will never get that with what we have now.

— Harold Lowe

Economy leaves many behind

We asked what our followers thought of a study finding more children are living in poverty now than in the Great Recession. Comments from Twitter are edited for clarity and grammar:

It is heartbreaking. These children deserve better but won’t get it due to the income gap.

— @flinds

The war on poverty is a failed policy. Redistribution will never work. Everyone needs opportunity, not handouts!

— @MountainMike4

Parents are abandoning their children.

— @chistate33

One in five children in the U.S. live in poverty. It’s worse than during the recession. The economy is not recovering.

— @trutherbot_fire

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion and #tellusatoday on Twitter.