Income inequality and child poverty rose in 2022 as the temporary expansion of the social safety net the federal government unfurled during the early part of the COVID-19 epidemic contracted, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau .

The bureaus annual report found its broadest measure of poverty rose by 4.6 percentage points to 12.4%, the highest since 2018. Child poverty, measuring the percentage of kids under 15 living in low-income families, shot up to 12.4% in 2022 from 5.2% in 2021, mostly due to the expiration of the expanded child tax credit.

President Joe Biden put the blame firmly on the backs of Republicans, who uniformly opposed making the child tax credit included in COVID-era stimulus legislation permanent.

The rise reported today in child poverty is no accident it is the result of a deliberate policy choice congressional Republicans made to block help for families with children while advancing massive tax cuts for the wealthiest and largest corporations, he said in a statement.

Bidens view overlooks the role of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who, as the most moderate of the 50 Democrats then in the Senate, kept an extension of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in the fall of 2022. Manchins opposition stemmed in part from his belief the payments were being misused .

In response to a question on whether he had had second thoughts about opposing the credit, Manchin told a reporter from Semafor, Its deeper than that, we all have to do our part. The federal government cant run everything.