Poverty and Inequality

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I am pleased to join you because this is such an important topic and a topic that I have been talking about for a long time.

The income inequality in our country has grown and grown, and the tax cuts of Donald Trump, which I voted against, contributed to it greatly--tax cuts that gave the wealthy much more money, corporations and individuals, and did not help the poor and didn't really help the middle class much.

My district is in Memphis, Shelby County and Tipton County, just north of Memphis. Because of that, I am no stranger to high levels of poverty and inequality.

According to the 2023 Poverty Fact Sheet by the University of Memphis, 21.4 percent of Memphians live in poverty. The overall poverty rate for Black and Latino Memphians is almost double that of White and Caucasian residents; roughly 27 percent for Black and Latino residents, compared to 10 percent of Whites.

The child poverty rate is 32.7, a number that has been declining in recent years due to the child tax credits, but still far too high, and we don't know how much the child tax credits will be available to people this coming year.

In 2022, the child poverty rate in African-American and Latino communities was three times that of White families, 30 percent to 10. What hope does that give young African-American and Latino children?

The root causes of poverty often come down to access and opportunity. Childhood poverty is directly related to the financial status of the children's parents.

Many young adults in Memphis have parents and grandparents who are prohibited from buying houses in certain areas, redlining, which is still a practice in Memphis, and has been highlighted recently when one of the banks in Memphis was charged with such and pled guilty to such, I believe. That has restricted access to home loans and mortgage protections, as well.

Because of redlining, many families did not have the opportunity to buy desirable houses. These policies were legal until 1968, so it is not ancient history.

The impact of redlining continues as many families were unable to build generational wealth.

Now, poor families need access to services like citywide internet, subsidized childcare, and supportive mortgage rates.

And we tried to do some of those things, but unfortunately, it has not been a bipartisan effort. It has mostly been an effort by Democrats.

Tennessee is nationally ranked as a low-tax State, but that is not the case for the poorest families. The taxes are regressive. It is a sales tax-dependent State that taxes the poor in the most regressive manner.

The poorest 20 percent of Tennessee residents pay a significantly higher percentage of their income in State and local taxes than any other group in the State.

Low-income families are paying high amounts of taxes, while at the same time receiving lower levels of access to services and opportunities for economic mobility. Tennessee remains one of the 10 remaining States that have not expanded Medicaid. That is truly sorrowful and immoral.

If Tennessee were to expand, as 40 other States and the District of Columbia have, lower earning workers would have access to affordable healthcare, and their families would worry less about the impacts of seeking treatment for an illness.

A billion-plus dollars a year have been turned down by our State legislature because they don't care about taking care of the poor.

Matthew 25 talks about healing. I saw people that were naked, and I clothed them. I saw people that were hungry, and I fed them. I saw people who were sick, and I healed them.

Some people say they live by the Bible. If you want to know where my politics are just look to the Bible. Well, some of those people who speak it the most don't know Matthew 25.

Measures combating childhood poverty and closing the income/wealth gap among diverse groups are vital in my district, enough to make more progress on the issue.

I will continue advocating for the child tax credit, which Ms. DeLauro has championed, encouraging Tennessee to expand Medicaid, seeking additional funds for education and job training, and supporting other policies to help those in need.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. DeSaulnier for having the moral courage and the will to bring this Special Order to the people that are watching. It is an important issue, and it pains me to see our country becoming more and more divided.

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