Budget Overshadows Urgent Safety-Net Cliffs
A government shutdown looms as Congress moves into crisis mode and Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces another mutiny from hard-right conservatives, who are intent on derailing spending, even if it means curtailing federal services for millions of Americans. There’s no real solution ahead as lawmakers return to work today to vote this evening on a package of bills to fund parts of the government. McCarthy does not have a clear path with his options limited. Tensions are high and the federal government is on track to shut down in four days.
Another rapidly approaching deadline is funding for pandemic-era childcare that is set to expire on September 30. The temporary program created $24 billion in assistance, to help with an issue that has caused a ongoing major struggle for American families in the past. When this batch of funding is shut off in a few days, the state of child care in the United States is likely to be even worse than it was before 2020.
Thousands of child care facilities will be forced to close, which leaves working parents with another major obstacle. The Century Foundation, one of the oldest public policy research institutes in the country, estimates that when the federal child care investment ends this week, up to 70,000 child care centers could close with 3.2 million children losing care.
More than three million children are projected to lose access to care nationwide on September 30. The ripple effects will be major for businesses who will lose valuable employees or experience the impact of their employees’ child care disruptions, and state economies will lose tax revenue and jobs in the child care sector as a result. This impending crisis will also have a disproportionate negative effect on women, as data has shown us that mothers are the first to experience the economic impact resulting from a lack of child care, after being forced to leave the workforce when no other options remain.
A new study conducted by BabyCenter, an online media company that provides information on conception, pregnancy, birth, and early childhood development for parents and expecting parents, has revealed that on average, American families are waiting 6 months for any spot to open up in daycare centers.
The US Census has measured that the median household income for 2021 was $70,784. In this latest report by BabyCenter, which surveyed 2,000 mothers across the nation, families recorded spending $320 per week, or $16,686 per year, for full-time child care. In this survey, 14 percent of families spend more on child care than they do on rent or a mortgage.
Parents in the same study reported that they are pre-paying for a spot before their child is even of age for the care center — with some parents waiting two to three years to get into a more affordable daycare center. Four out of 10 moms who use childcare tell BabyCenter that they’ve put their child on at least one waitlist while they're pregnant.
By the end of this month, the substantial waiting times and the financial burdens of child care are only expected to intensify. As we fall off this "child care cliff," thousands of centers will be forced to close. BabyCenter estimates that the sudden lack of child care subsidies will also force remaining facilities to raise their rates if they haven't already.
Child care is not the only economic issue facing Americans that the government sought to protect during the last few years of the pandemic. The health insurance crisis in the US, which has never been fully and permanently addressed by Congress, has also been substantially exacerbated in the last few months as pandemic-era funding for Medicaid extensions were curtailed. It is estimated that as many as 24 million Americans have lost coverage following the termination of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which included a requirement that Medicaid programs keep people continuously enrolled through the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
While some states have obtained federal waivers to prepare to complete re-determinations for all Medicaid enrollees and give people more time to adjust to the lack of coverage, a majority of Medicaid extensions ended for most Americans in August. This created another surge in the insurance industry that is struggling to keep up with demand. It has also resulted in more astronomical costs for low-income families who are already dealing with the economic ramifications of post-Covid money matters.
While the impending government shutdown might not seem like a tremendous loss of available services that Americans have come to rely upon, the Sept. 30 deadline for a resolution represents more than just a longer wait to get a passport processed. For many families in the US, the shutdown represents yet another failure by Congress to protect taxpayers from the fallout of unforeseeable emergencies like those presented by the pandemic.
This latest political stalemate is more than another breakdown in negotiations between two parties headed into another major election — it represents the ongoing issues facing all Americans who are reeling from a lack of critical safety nets necessary for everyday life.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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I wish I could say that Republican are "insane" (then they would have an excuse), but it's not the case. They would, then, have an excuse for being evil. They put on quite a show, but to the detriment of all the residents of the U.S.. It will not be "Dems" in Congress who suffer, it will be everyone. I loathe them, as a group. There are very few who have voiced strong objections. Everyone needs to understand that this has happened before and it caused considerable suffering. And, it could be an actual disaster for both the economy and individuals. Again, they are not crazy, not stupid. They are evil.