Episode Details

Karen Dolan, Project Director of the Criminalization of Race and Poverty program at the Institute of Policy Studies, discusses recent report "Federal Policy Threatens Women and Children with Poverty". She argues that poverty in America is a policy choice, and women and children are the most vulnerable. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government bolstered the safety net by expanding the child tax credit, allowing continuous enrollment into Medicaid, halting evictions, etc. The result was a significant dip in poverty across the board, with child poverty slashed in half. Despite the success of these programs, many were allowed to expire post-pandemic to instead fund defense spending and tax cuts for the wealthy. Trump administration's policies, such as the DOGE cuts and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act add to this pain by reducing funding to essential welfare programs like food stamps and Medicaid.