Noting that pandemic-era aid has ended just as prices are rising, the Washington Post reports that the middle class is feeling squeezed again.
Two research reports by Poverty Solutions were referenced in the report.
"From December 2020 to April 2021, when the Biden administration sent out $1,400 stimulus checks, the share of Americans nationwide reporting that they did not have enough to eat fell by 40 percent, according to University of Michigan poverty researchers. Financial instability fell by 45 percent, the researchers found. 'Adverse mental health symptoms' fell by more than 20 percent," it reported.
Further, "The share of Americans who reported sometimes or often going hungry plummeted to 8 percent in April 2021. It had risen back to 10 percent by February of this year, according to a research paper by University of Michigan poverty researchers Patrick Cooney, H. Luke Shaefer and Samiul Jubaed. Similarly, the percentage of Americans who said it was very difficult to pay for household expenses increased from roughly 9.8 percent in April 2021 to 14 percent this February, the paper found."
