Today Americans began to see the concrete effects of the American Rescue Plan show up in their bank accounts, as the expanded child tax credit goes into effect for one year. Through this program, the Child Tax Credit increased to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent. The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion.
While I certainly applaud the child tax credit checks and getting children out of poverty, I'd like to point out the bigger picture and underlying cause -- income disparity. Middle class Americans are not making a living wage even when both the father and the mother are working full time jobs or even when each work more than one job like many teachers. Wages have not gone up in years. The childcare that makes it possible for women to work is very expensive while the income disparity makes it almost imperative. The middle class is being hollowed out by corporations that are keeping wages down and investors who insist on bigger profits by carving any expenses like labor to the bone. The employees do not get their share of that profits. Employees need to become shareholders -- by law if necessary. Capitalism is imploding if corporations keep starving the consumers that make Capitalism work. I'm expecting to hear the word "hand-outs" from the GOP like this is all the fault of lazy people. Glad we have an administration that is working on fixing all this. This is NOT the time for I alone can fix it; we all need to pitch in and support the current President and his administration. Only we together can fix it.
By the time I reached the end of today's Letter From an American, it felt as a storybook resting in my lap. There was one terrific note after another told by a nimble writer with a smile on her face. In the midst of these tense and uncertain years, how can that be? With news so serious, why did the Letter feel so easy and uplifting to read? Perhaps, because the accumulation of Trump's detritus (TC would use another word or words) has been piling up so high, he may not even be able to see over it.
To begin at the beginning: 'The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion.' '... the Child Tax Credit increased to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent.' (The Letter),
In my comments, I tend to lean heavily on research, investigative reports, studies, reports by top-notch journalists, but today is another day. For the last few months, I have come to believe that one of the stories of this time is about good and evil, in rather simple terms. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is a good man, a truly good man. He looks for guidance and we imagine those sources, so dear to him. Joe cares, he truly cares, and he loves, he smiles, he is full of joy and sorrow. Joe learned his job and he learned us. He listens.
And then there is Donald J. Trump. We know his character, his emptiness, with revenge, rage, desperation, greed, ignorance and destruction filling the spaces. It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him.
Our country, you and I, have been through a cycle of evil and now of good. We are moving with Joe Biden, his administration and other very good women to a better place. I took a big breath while reading today's Letter. Heather Cox Richardson and subscribers to Letter From an American are our friends through these cycles of life in America.
Gotta hand it to you, Dr. Heather, your concluding statements in your Letters are often evocative and bring up emotions ranging from fear, loathing or disgust with 45 and his cult, to hopeful optimism for the next generation, but this is the first time I'm laughing my head off, about:
"As near as I can tell, the former president is the only Republican who has responded to the story. Other leaders are talking about the border, masks, Cuba, and Britney Spears. Their lack of a response to a deeply damaging story about the leader of their party suggests to me that, at best, they are hoping the story will disappear and, at worst, they believe it’s true."
Thank you for your Letters, and all the time you devote to them. Rest well!💜
I got mine today! $250 is a real help to us. I make a decent living, but we're in an expensive city made expensive by people who make a lot more than me. We're middle class in that we could last maybe a month if I got laid off. So I say thanks Joe! It appears someone out there cares whether I have a little breathing room, and whether people who make less than me have some air to breathe at all. The Republicans seem intent on creating an entire Ozone around the rich, and by extension, themselves.
I just learned from my daughter that our niece is going through a rough time as she and her husband head into a divorce. What's important in this story are the circumstances surrounding this family tragedy that so many young Maine and US families are caught up in.
Our niece married a good young man in the National Guard, who made this his fulltime career. His pay was not adequate to support him and his wife. She was a college graduate and proceeded to work and establish her career. They proceeded to have two children, both still under the age of five.
The National Guard regularly reminded this couple that service away from home should be expected and would be required without any plans for supporting any spouces and children.
Since the children were born, the husband / father was sent to Iraq for six months, I believe this included Christmas. In preparation for this deployment, there was other time away from home. About a year or two later, the husband was sent to Texas for six months of training.
During these periods, our niece was coping with her husband's absence, two young children who did not respond well to these changes, her job with an employer with little understanding, sympathy, assistance or cooperation. Child care apparently was entirely the responsibility of the family to find and pay for to meet their particular needs.
All of this stress has played a huge part in the breakdown of this family. A couple that for years before the father's military absences spent several periods each summer visiting and bringing other family and friends to our home in Maine on the coast. Not a huge contribution to our state economy, but a cumulative amount with so many others going through similar conditions living in our state or visiting us regularly that will eventually drop out of our state economy.
The two key issues here from our vantage are childcare and the military. We see first hand the importance of President Biden's proposal that childcare is critical infrastructure for our economy, for employment and jobs, for our families, for our healthcare and just about everything. Stress like this leads to alcoholism, poor personal healthcare, mental and physical deterioration, and so many other problems and expenses for our state and nation.
The military is not family friendly. Particularly for the National Guard which has been called upon with more demands as Congress demands more from fewer American families. Our military staff are not paid enough to cover the costs of so many support services that they need. Healthcare, mental health, counselors and marriage support, childcare, food and housing should be in most cases provided free, accessible and sufficient that no military family is left in isolation without full support.
Finally, I would add that the hostile politics of violence coming mostly from the Trump administration and supporting Republicans who cannot say that President Biden won the election and continue to use this to attack our democracy is stressful to all Americans, particularly those who with so many responsibilities, who are separated without adequate support.
We musr give our full organized vocal, lobbying and voting support to our young military and working families. There is no substitute for adequate resources for our young families and children.
I'm thoughly disgusted that the GOP are turning a blind eye to these developments. This just proves there is zero accountability in politics.
I am already seeing the idle threats of "this is the end of Trump" on social media. I urge you to dismiss this fantasy. No it isn't. Lest I remind you, he can shoot someone on 5th Ave and nothing will happen to him. This is another of those moments. That scenario will run continuously long after his death.
It's certainly a relief that the GOP are concentrating their collective efforts on the Britney Spears scandal or they would have had to come up with something to top that. Perhaps one of them getting a bad haircut or buying shoes off the internet that don't fit. 🙄
The former guy’s response “[I]f I was going to do a coup…” sounds suspiciously like “Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened”. Of course he was trying to stay in power by any means possible. And now he's laid out a blueprint for the GOP to follow for the next couple of elections. We have from now until 2022, maybe 2024, to reverse this trend, or we're in for full on fascism.
We must all do what we can to push the needle in the other direction. One simple thing we can do is to call/write your elected officials, from county to federal, regardless of party, and tell them what you think of the job they're doing. Be constructive and respectful, but direct. They need to be reminded that YOU are their constituents and CAN'T be ignored.
Make this a weekly task. If your rep is doing a good job, let them know. The good ones need our support now more than ever.
Make it fun by getting together with friends over coffee and write together. Keep up the pressure. Even GOP "lawmakers" have to hire folks to answer their constituents. Put those putzes to work.
There is a theory that when the people see that the government is truly responsive to their needs (as in Child Tax Credits) that they will flock to the polls and all Democrats will win in a national landslide. A reasonable strategy.
Books, investigations and even trials will reveal, again, that Republicans are idiots and sociopaths.
However, if the Republican voter suppression is not stopped our enlightened population will not be able to vote and, in some cases, their vote will be overruled by the state legislators. Who will count the votes?
The Republican strategy continues to be distraction and our Democratic weakness is focus.
I have zero doubt that the Milley story about the Orange Asscactus is true. I also have zero doubt that he will continue to face no consequences whatsoever for trying to end democracy in this country (an effort that is ongoing, mind you). Republicans treasure power more than they do the democratic institutions of this country.
Good Morning Dr Richardson and fellow reader-activists.
Now that they have gotten the Child Tax Credit into action the next move will be to make it permanent. Too bad they couldn't do that with the extra $300/wk for unemployment. If you do the math that $300 works out to be $7.50/hr only slightly above minimum wage rates.
Of course the GOP is going to talk about anything except trump's statement about a coup and the insurrection, they know that many of their members are facing deep scrutiny over the mechanics of the insurrection and their culpability.
I have been heartened by the words from Gen Milley that they were not unaware of the danger that trump posed and they were forming plans to thwart that possibility. But if they had resigned would there not have been others who would have stepped up to support the coup? I am glad we didn't have to find out.
“In America, one in seven children lives in poverty.” Shame on our country. Shame on the policies that have been enacted to make this so. Yes, Dr. R, the Child Tax Credit IS a big deal! It should be shouted from the rooftops. Good news that benefits people now and in the future. As for the Trumpublicans and their treachery, we must not let them succeed.
The Child Tax Credit is to be applauded as temporarily bringing half of poor children out of poverty. Never mentioned, and probably even more important, is the huge impact it will have on those who remain in poverty.
For example, if an extremely poor family doubles its income, it is hugely helpful, even if that family remains below the poverty level. It might allow them to move out of an old car and into a mobile home. Kids would have better clothes for school. Though they might remain poor, their lives would be somewhat less desperate. Ideally for some, it might mean their guardians might more easily afford the minimum they need to get employment or training, like clothing and carfare. Though every child and adult should be lifted out of poverty, this is a huge step forward.
We effectively had two trials involving treason directed at the Trump administration. The impeachment trials of Donald J. Trump. Republicans acquitted him. Enough Republicans participated in or knew enough about those treasonous acts to be conspirators, accessories or facilitators. When President Lincoln was assassinated, those identified as knowing or having contact with John Wilkes Booth were tried and hung. There is more evidence against Republicans this time around than they had when Lincoln was assassinated. President Trump and his participating Republicans have been trying to assassinate the United States of America with help from FOX.
I love the description of Qevin McQarthy (R-Oklafornia) visiting Trump to "lick the soles of Trump's shoes." That's exactly how abject his surrender is.
As regards the Guardian report, "beware of the news that gives you exactly what you want to hear." I seriously doubt that Putin and his gang would put what they did in writing, because the damage it would do to them if it ever came out. Some things governments do never get acknowledged anywhere, and doing this is exactly one of those things. I think the "tell" that this is fake news is the "psychological profile" of Trump. Those are exactly the words we Trump-haters use to describe that worthless piece of shit.
As for trust-fund baby Carlson, someone needs to walk up to him on the street, not say a damn word to him, and just punch him so hard in the face his nose is broken and he hits the pavement hard enough to fracture his skull - not that anything vital would be harmed.
While I certainly applaud the child tax credit checks and getting children out of poverty, I'd like to point out the bigger picture and underlying cause -- income disparity. Middle class Americans are not making a living wage even when both the father and the mother are working full time jobs or even when each work more than one job like many teachers. Wages have not gone up in years. The childcare that makes it possible for women to work is very expensive while the income disparity makes it almost imperative. The middle class is being hollowed out by corporations that are keeping wages down and investors who insist on bigger profits by carving any expenses like labor to the bone. The employees do not get their share of that profits. Employees need to become shareholders -- by law if necessary. Capitalism is imploding if corporations keep starving the consumers that make Capitalism work. I'm expecting to hear the word "hand-outs" from the GOP like this is all the fault of lazy people. Glad we have an administration that is working on fixing all this. This is NOT the time for I alone can fix it; we all need to pitch in and support the current President and his administration. Only we together can fix it.
By the time I reached the end of today's Letter From an American, it felt as a storybook resting in my lap. There was one terrific note after another told by a nimble writer with a smile on her face. In the midst of these tense and uncertain years, how can that be? With news so serious, why did the Letter feel so easy and uplifting to read? Perhaps, because the accumulation of Trump's detritus (TC would use another word or words) has been piling up so high, he may not even be able to see over it.
To begin at the beginning: 'The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion.' '... the Child Tax Credit increased to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent.' (The Letter),
In my comments, I tend to lean heavily on research, investigative reports, studies, reports by top-notch journalists, but today is another day. For the last few months, I have come to believe that one of the stories of this time is about good and evil, in rather simple terms. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is a good man, a truly good man. He looks for guidance and we imagine those sources, so dear to him. Joe cares, he truly cares, and he loves, he smiles, he is full of joy and sorrow. Joe learned his job and he learned us. He listens.
And then there is Donald J. Trump. We know his character, his emptiness, with revenge, rage, desperation, greed, ignorance and destruction filling the spaces. It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him.
Our country, you and I, have been through a cycle of evil and now of good. We are moving with Joe Biden, his administration and other very good women to a better place. I took a big breath while reading today's Letter. Heather Cox Richardson and subscribers to Letter From an American are our friends through these cycles of life in America.
Gotta hand it to you, Dr. Heather, your concluding statements in your Letters are often evocative and bring up emotions ranging from fear, loathing or disgust with 45 and his cult, to hopeful optimism for the next generation, but this is the first time I'm laughing my head off, about:
"As near as I can tell, the former president is the only Republican who has responded to the story. Other leaders are talking about the border, masks, Cuba, and Britney Spears. Their lack of a response to a deeply damaging story about the leader of their party suggests to me that, at best, they are hoping the story will disappear and, at worst, they believe it’s true."
Thank you for your Letters, and all the time you devote to them. Rest well!💜
I got mine today! $250 is a real help to us. I make a decent living, but we're in an expensive city made expensive by people who make a lot more than me. We're middle class in that we could last maybe a month if I got laid off. So I say thanks Joe! It appears someone out there cares whether I have a little breathing room, and whether people who make less than me have some air to breathe at all. The Republicans seem intent on creating an entire Ozone around the rich, and by extension, themselves.
I just learned from my daughter that our niece is going through a rough time as she and her husband head into a divorce. What's important in this story are the circumstances surrounding this family tragedy that so many young Maine and US families are caught up in.
Our niece married a good young man in the National Guard, who made this his fulltime career. His pay was not adequate to support him and his wife. She was a college graduate and proceeded to work and establish her career. They proceeded to have two children, both still under the age of five.
The National Guard regularly reminded this couple that service away from home should be expected and would be required without any plans for supporting any spouces and children.
Since the children were born, the husband / father was sent to Iraq for six months, I believe this included Christmas. In preparation for this deployment, there was other time away from home. About a year or two later, the husband was sent to Texas for six months of training.
During these periods, our niece was coping with her husband's absence, two young children who did not respond well to these changes, her job with an employer with little understanding, sympathy, assistance or cooperation. Child care apparently was entirely the responsibility of the family to find and pay for to meet their particular needs.
All of this stress has played a huge part in the breakdown of this family. A couple that for years before the father's military absences spent several periods each summer visiting and bringing other family and friends to our home in Maine on the coast. Not a huge contribution to our state economy, but a cumulative amount with so many others going through similar conditions living in our state or visiting us regularly that will eventually drop out of our state economy.
The two key issues here from our vantage are childcare and the military. We see first hand the importance of President Biden's proposal that childcare is critical infrastructure for our economy, for employment and jobs, for our families, for our healthcare and just about everything. Stress like this leads to alcoholism, poor personal healthcare, mental and physical deterioration, and so many other problems and expenses for our state and nation.
The military is not family friendly. Particularly for the National Guard which has been called upon with more demands as Congress demands more from fewer American families. Our military staff are not paid enough to cover the costs of so many support services that they need. Healthcare, mental health, counselors and marriage support, childcare, food and housing should be in most cases provided free, accessible and sufficient that no military family is left in isolation without full support.
Finally, I would add that the hostile politics of violence coming mostly from the Trump administration and supporting Republicans who cannot say that President Biden won the election and continue to use this to attack our democracy is stressful to all Americans, particularly those who with so many responsibilities, who are separated without adequate support.
We musr give our full organized vocal, lobbying and voting support to our young military and working families. There is no substitute for adequate resources for our young families and children.
Thank you Heather.
I'm thoughly disgusted that the GOP are turning a blind eye to these developments. This just proves there is zero accountability in politics.
I am already seeing the idle threats of "this is the end of Trump" on social media. I urge you to dismiss this fantasy. No it isn't. Lest I remind you, he can shoot someone on 5th Ave and nothing will happen to him. This is another of those moments. That scenario will run continuously long after his death.
It's certainly a relief that the GOP are concentrating their collective efforts on the Britney Spears scandal or they would have had to come up with something to top that. Perhaps one of them getting a bad haircut or buying shoes off the internet that don't fit. 🙄
Be safe, be well.
Love the parallel to Sherlock Holmes and the clue about the family dog not barking!! ❤️😂
Fox News should not be allowed to call themselves news. It is propaganda contributing to the demise of our country by spreading lies.
The former guy’s response “[I]f I was going to do a coup…” sounds suspiciously like “Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened”. Of course he was trying to stay in power by any means possible. And now he's laid out a blueprint for the GOP to follow for the next couple of elections. We have from now until 2022, maybe 2024, to reverse this trend, or we're in for full on fascism.
We must all do what we can to push the needle in the other direction. One simple thing we can do is to call/write your elected officials, from county to federal, regardless of party, and tell them what you think of the job they're doing. Be constructive and respectful, but direct. They need to be reminded that YOU are their constituents and CAN'T be ignored.
Make this a weekly task. If your rep is doing a good job, let them know. The good ones need our support now more than ever.
Make it fun by getting together with friends over coffee and write together. Keep up the pressure. Even GOP "lawmakers" have to hire folks to answer their constituents. Put those putzes to work.
There is a theory that when the people see that the government is truly responsive to their needs (as in Child Tax Credits) that they will flock to the polls and all Democrats will win in a national landslide. A reasonable strategy.
Books, investigations and even trials will reveal, again, that Republicans are idiots and sociopaths.
However, if the Republican voter suppression is not stopped our enlightened population will not be able to vote and, in some cases, their vote will be overruled by the state legislators. Who will count the votes?
The Republican strategy continues to be distraction and our Democratic weakness is focus.
We need to protect the vote.
I have zero doubt that the Milley story about the Orange Asscactus is true. I also have zero doubt that he will continue to face no consequences whatsoever for trying to end democracy in this country (an effort that is ongoing, mind you). Republicans treasure power more than they do the democratic institutions of this country.
Good Morning Dr Richardson and fellow reader-activists.
Now that they have gotten the Child Tax Credit into action the next move will be to make it permanent. Too bad they couldn't do that with the extra $300/wk for unemployment. If you do the math that $300 works out to be $7.50/hr only slightly above minimum wage rates.
Of course the GOP is going to talk about anything except trump's statement about a coup and the insurrection, they know that many of their members are facing deep scrutiny over the mechanics of the insurrection and their culpability.
I have been heartened by the words from Gen Milley that they were not unaware of the danger that trump posed and they were forming plans to thwart that possibility. But if they had resigned would there not have been others who would have stepped up to support the coup? I am glad we didn't have to find out.
“In America, one in seven children lives in poverty.” Shame on our country. Shame on the policies that have been enacted to make this so. Yes, Dr. R, the Child Tax Credit IS a big deal! It should be shouted from the rooftops. Good news that benefits people now and in the future. As for the Trumpublicans and their treachery, we must not let them succeed.
The Child Tax Credit is to be applauded as temporarily bringing half of poor children out of poverty. Never mentioned, and probably even more important, is the huge impact it will have on those who remain in poverty.
For example, if an extremely poor family doubles its income, it is hugely helpful, even if that family remains below the poverty level. It might allow them to move out of an old car and into a mobile home. Kids would have better clothes for school. Though they might remain poor, their lives would be somewhat less desperate. Ideally for some, it might mean their guardians might more easily afford the minimum they need to get employment or training, like clothing and carfare. Though every child and adult should be lifted out of poverty, this is a huge step forward.
We effectively had two trials involving treason directed at the Trump administration. The impeachment trials of Donald J. Trump. Republicans acquitted him. Enough Republicans participated in or knew enough about those treasonous acts to be conspirators, accessories or facilitators. When President Lincoln was assassinated, those identified as knowing or having contact with John Wilkes Booth were tried and hung. There is more evidence against Republicans this time around than they had when Lincoln was assassinated. President Trump and his participating Republicans have been trying to assassinate the United States of America with help from FOX.
I love the description of Qevin McQarthy (R-Oklafornia) visiting Trump to "lick the soles of Trump's shoes." That's exactly how abject his surrender is.
As regards the Guardian report, "beware of the news that gives you exactly what you want to hear." I seriously doubt that Putin and his gang would put what they did in writing, because the damage it would do to them if it ever came out. Some things governments do never get acknowledged anywhere, and doing this is exactly one of those things. I think the "tell" that this is fake news is the "psychological profile" of Trump. Those are exactly the words we Trump-haters use to describe that worthless piece of shit.
As for trust-fund baby Carlson, someone needs to walk up to him on the street, not say a damn word to him, and just punch him so hard in the face his nose is broken and he hits the pavement hard enough to fracture his skull - not that anything vital would be harmed.