| POLITICS PROLONGS CHILD POVERTY
As families struggle to meet rising costs of food and housing, Congress was poised to offer relief with a new child tax credit. In exchange, businesses would have gotten $160 billion in tax cuts.
But that wasn’t enough.
What’s it going to take?
The U.S. House garnered bipartisan support for a child tax credit by coupling it with a tax break 4.5 times the size. Last January, it passed $35 billion to expand the child tax credit (CTC) along with $160 billion in business tax cuts with a 357-70 vote.
This week, the Senate voted it down.
If the Senate had acted quickly instead of shelving the bill for eight months, next year alone 400,000 American children would have been lifted out of poverty and three million kids would be less poor. Over the three years the bill would have been in effect, a half billion children would have risen above the poverty line and five million children would be better off. Overall, more than 1 in 5 children under 17 would benefit in the first year.
The expansion would particularly help Black and Hispanic parents who too often make too little money to qualify for the current child tax credit. More than one in three Black and Hispanic children, and one in seven Asian children would benefit. (One in seven white children would benefit as well.)
But the Senate’s 48-44-8 vote killed the legislation for the year. (PA Senator Casey voted yes; PA Senator Fetterman did not vote). Some senators said they needed more time for the legislation to go through the committee structure, despite it being sent to the Senate in January. Rumors spread that parents without immigration documentation would be eligible. Senator Marco Rubio, a champion of corporate tax cuts, demanded a work requirement attached to the child tax credit.
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who voted for the bill, mused that his colleagues are holding out for Election Day wins so they can come back to the table to “do a better tax bill.”
In the meantime, families will continue to be burdened with unpaid debt and overdue bills and we’re left wondering how much more business relief is needed before families get some help.
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