A group of Senate Democrats are pushing for President Joe Biden not to waive the child tax credit after Biden said he didn’t think he could revive the monthly child support program.
From July to December last year, the IRS paid most American parents up to $300 per child. Democrats were intent on keeping the Recovery Act’s benefits better, but the bill stalled after Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) said he would not vote for it.
Democrats are now picking up the pieces of legislation and trying to figure out what can be passed in a smaller new bill. In their letter, the senators said Biden should return the child tax credit as “a centerpiece of legislation.”
“Nearly 9 out of 10 American children have taken advantage of these payments, which have enabled their families to afford rent, table food and child care so their parents and caregivers can stay at work.” — Senator Michael Bennett (Colorado, USA) . ), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Corey Booker (New Jersey), Raphael Warnock (Georgia) and Ron Wyden (Oregon), the letter said.
The letter is a mild rebuke to Biden for being candid during a press conference last week that he believes the child tax credit and free community colleges should be excluded from the next Rebuild Better than It Was bill.
“These are huge things that I have worked on that I am very excited about, and I will keep coming back to them,” Biden said.
Several of the senators who signed the letter previously told HuffPost they were discussing among themselves what changes they might want to make to get Manchin on the child tax credit, which has been granted to 36 million families in the past. per year, including those with no income and those with six-figure incomes. Manchin proposed to exclude the unemployed and the wealthy; the letter does not suggest any possible changes.
The fact that senators seem to be expressing disappointment with Biden suggests that they are not on the cusp of any breakthroughs in a compromise proposal on child tax credits.
Senators have warned Biden that if Democrats fail to restore monthly payments, he risks breaking his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000, since the payments are technically upfront tax credits. Not to mention that millions of children will end up in poverty.
“After historical progress, it is unacceptable to return to the status quo in which children are the poorest people in America, and child poverty costs our country more than $1 trillion a year,” the letter says.
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