Child tax credit advocates are split on a pending Congressional deal to lift some families out of poverty.
New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro came out Tuesday against the deal. She said it leaves out too many families while enriching corporations that don’t need the help.
The pending bipartisan deal would spend $35 billion expanding the earned income tax credit for three years for low-income families who earn too little to qualify for the maximum amount. It would spend roughly the same amount on research and development tax breaks for corporations. Click here for a full summary of the deal.
DeLauro played the leading role in expanding the tax credit as part of the American Rescue Plan pandemic-relief law passed at the start of the Biden administration. That expansion expired. She pushed hard for Congress to revive it.
But the details of the revived version in the current proposal fall short, DeLauro argued in a release issued Tuesday. She argued that it leaves out too many low-income families, particularly those earning no income. She also argued families should receive monthly checks rather than an annual payment.
“The recently announced tax framework fails to sufficiently improve the Child Tax Credit, leaving millions of middle-class families without a tax cut like they received in 2021, and keeping millions of children in preventable poverty because of a policy choice,” DeLauro stated. “At a time when big corporations are making record profits and are profiteering, the idea that we have to evenly split the pot with poor children is absurd.”
Click here to view a breakdown of the argument released by her office.
Two leading anti-poverty advocacy groups — the Center on Law and Social Policy and Center on Budget and Priorities — issued statements in favor of the compromise. They argued that the compromise takes an “important first step” by increasing payments that cover 16 million of an estimated 19 million children left behind by the expiration of the credit. Read their statements here and here.
Rosa is right.
Corporations dont need our help.
The poorest families with children do need help, and monthly payments are much better for household budgeting than a year end tax break.
When we had the American Rescue Plan Child Tax Credit, poor families spent that money on food, shelter, clothing for children, daycare, education materials, healthcare, diapers, transportation, education and training for better paying careers, and infused that money back into the economy.
It lifted millions of children out of poverty.
It should be reinstated as it was originally implemented, and not have corporate handouts tacked onto it.