More Americans are dying. Fewer and fewer Americans are being born. And fewer people are immigrating to America. Democratic policy proposals will help with all of this.
According to new census data released this year, 2021 has seen the slowest US population growth in history. A recent study in Wisconsin found that population growth has slowed to the lowest rate on record at 3.6% in Badger State. Declining population growth has been a trend for years. But last year the numbers fell off a cliff.
Three factors are responsible for the shocking downturn, all of which could be mitigated by proposals from the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress.
- Death: More people are dying. Losing a million Americans to COVID-19 is obviously a factor. And hopefully that will be a huge outlier. So the solution here is simple – no more vaccinations or boosters and staying vigilant so the country can ward off any new variants is crucial. This is exactly why President Biden and Democrats are pushing for much-needed funding to make this happen.
- Births: Fewer Americans are having children. Amid a growing crisis in housing availability and affordability, debilitating childcare costs that keep parents out of work and education costs that continue to rise should surprise no one. As a country, finding ways to make parenthood more affordable is something we absolutely need to do. Unfortunately, Republican members of the U.S. Senate refused to work with the Biden administration on legislation to address these issues — many of which were supported by all congressional Democrats in the version of the Build Back Better bill that passed. by the House last year.
- Immigration: Between a nativist and xenophobic Trump presidency and Republican efforts to curb illegal and legal immigration, new immigrants to America have grown from one million to about 250,000 in the past five years. These are political choices that have an impact not only on our population growth, but also on the dynamism of our economy. Recently, the Biden administration rolled back some of the Trump-era policies that limited legal immigration.
There are real public policy proposals and actions that would impact (or are already impacting) each of these three factors, crippling America’s population growth. They are there, you can find them, some of them were even passed by Congress. Don’t be surprised if you find that none of them are backed by Republican politicians or have no alternative.