As youth poverty spikes, Manchin has no regrets on Child Tax Credit

Sen. Joe Manchin isn’t sharing any regrets about letting his party’s expansion of the Child Tax Credit lapse, even after a historic spike in youth poverty last year.

According to Census data released on Tuesday, the share of Americans under 18 living below the poverty line jumped from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022 as the Biden administration’s bulked-up credit expired, the biggest annual increase on record.

Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat whose opposition to extending the supersized credit was a decisive factor in its demise, seemed unfazed when asked if Tuesday’s poverty data left him with any second thoughts. “It’s deeper than that, we all have to do our part,” he told Semafor. “The federal government can’t run everything.”