Washington DC – With alarming new reports of rising US child poverty rates, members of the Squad are clear in who they say is to blame.

According to researchers at Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy, the monthly child poverty rate increased from 12.1% last December to 17% in January – the highest it's been since the end of 2020.

The startling 4.9 percentage point – or 41% – increase means that 3.7 million more American children are living in poverty thanks to the expiration of Child Tax Credit monthly payments, they said.

Black and brown children have been disparately impacted by the changes. Child poverty reportedly increased by 7.1 percentage points among Latino children and 5.9 percentage points among Black children.

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The Child Tax Credit, part of Biden's Covid-19 relief package, provided low-income families a fully refundable $3,600 per child per year for children under the age of six. For children ages six to 17, the sum amounted to $3,000 per child per year.

The Child Tax Credit was set for renewal in the Build Back Better Act (BBB), but the monthly payments expired in December after lawmakers failed to advance the bill.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema refused to get on board with their party's social spending package, ultimately dooming it to failure.

Members of the Squad were quick to call out Manchin and Sinema upon the release of the Columbia researchers' findings.

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush tweeted, "Joe Manchin joined Senate Republicans to kill the Child Tax Credit. He sent millions of children into poverty."

"I’d ask how he sleeps at night, but we already know the answer," she continued. "On his yacht that he drives to in his Maserati – while children now are forced out of their homes."

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AOC posted, "One US Senator 'heard stories' about people allegedly using the Child Tax Credit 'for drugs' without any evidence or data to back it up," referencing Manchin.

"He then used that as justification to nuke the entire national program, causing millions of kids to fall into poverty in weeks. Horrifying."

She added that there are "kids going hungry waiting for some guy in a yacht to decide if they are fully human or not."

During negotiations last fall, Manchin, the beneficiary of inherited wealth, came under fire from progressives for seeking to make access to the benefits contingent upon the parents having a job.