I go and on about the amount of taxpayer dollars being thrown at Ukraine when that cash is needed here and now.
The Congress has authorized almost a trillion dollars (that is a “T”) for the Pentagon but when a bill to help fight child poverty….and it failed.
Congressional Republicans happily teamed up with Democrats this month to authorize $858 billion in military spending for the next fiscal year, but the GOP is refusing to even consider proposals to revive the Child Tax Credit expansion that lifted millions of kids out of poverty last year—even though bringing the program back would cost a fraction of the Pentagon outlay.
A spokesperson for Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told HuffPost earlier this week that Republicans have thus far been unwilling to negotiate over the Child Tax Credit (CTC) boost, which they unanimously opposed when it was enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan last year.
“Republicans have refused to engage at all on the Child Tax Credit,” said Ashley Schapitl. “In fact they made clear they would not negotiate on any deal that includes the child tax credit.”
Leading Republicans readily confirmed their refusal to consider the CTC boost as part of an end-of-year tax package. With the 60-vote Senate filibuster intact, Democrats need the support of at least 10 Republicans to revive the expanded CTC in some form.
“As of right now there’s no support for that on the Republican side,” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told HuffPost.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), one of the 176 House Republicans who voted in favor of the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act last week, declared that “the country frankly doesn’t have the time or the money for the partisan, expensive provisions such as [the] Child Tax Credit.”
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of just 11 senators to vote against the NDAA, lamented that the bill provides the military with “many billions more than Congress has invested in addressing many of the biggest security concerns facing the American people—such as climate change, the opioid epidemic, poverty, hunger, and disease.”
“Instead, it doubles down on the failed approach of pouring money into a bloated, inefficient, and sometimes counterproductive national security machine underwritten by an army of lobbyists and gold-plated contractors that fails to deliver on the needs of the American people,” Markey added. “I simply cannot support it.”
I just wish that the American people cared more about their neighbors than some made up BS that needs our money thrown at it…..while that cheer for military victories they allow children to go hungry…..very disturbing at the lack of empathy.
This is so sad.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
We have similar attitudes here. More money for Ukraine, billions to be invested in a new jet fighter project, but refusing a fair pay rise for NHS nurses because it is supposedly ‘unaffordable’. The priorities are all wrong.
Best wishes, Pete.
Way wrong…..chuq
We need to get a law passed in this country where whenever there is a bill sent to congress, such a bill can never contain any pork-barrel provisions.
As long as lobbyist roam free that day will never come chuq