WASHINGTON (AP) – The massive coronavirus relief plan that comes to President Joe Biden’s desk includes a plan to temporarily increase child tax credit that could end up permanently changing the way the country deals with child poverty.
It also sets up a potential political confrontation with Republicans on an issue that Democrats believe could lead to significant victories for the party in the mid-term elections of 2022 and beyond.
The American Redemption Plan, which is due to receive final approval this week, temporarily increases the child tax credit, now up to a maximum of $ 2,000, to up to $ 3,600 per child annually. The plan also expands credit so that it is fully available to the poorest families, rather than restricting it based on the parents’ tax liability. And it will be paid in monthly installments, to offer families who struggle during the pandemic a more consistent lifeline.
In the short term, said Democratic strategist Josh Schwerin, the expansion of the tax credit and other immediate aid included in the $ 1.9 trillion account provides real evidence of Democratic action to help middle-class families.
“One of the good things politically about this bill is the direct and obvious impact it will have on American families in a way that they can see and feel immediately,” he said.
The legislation grants families up to $ 3,600 annually for each child under 6 and up to $ 3,000 for children under 17. Credit begins to decline for individual parents who earn more than $ 75,000 and couples who earn $ 150,000. The legislation also expands credit to millions of families who currently earn very little to qualify for full benefits.
The benefit aims to support millions of families affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with parents forced to cut back on work or give up their job entirely to care for their children after losing access to daycare centers. Democrats embraced an analysis that concluded that the proposal would reduce child poverty among black families by more than 50% and by 45% overall.
Republicans say the move amounts to an expansion of the welfare state that will discourage parents from looking for work. But Democrats present the proposal as a fundamental rethink of how the country addresses child poverty and an opportunity to deal with the income inequality that was exacerbated by the pandemic.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a Democrat who has advocated an expansion of credit since 2003, said in a statement that “this legislation forever changes the way our nation supports middle-class families and children in poverty.”
DeLauro and other Democrats on Capitol Hill see current legislation as a basis for permanent credit expansion. In fact, Biden himself told House Democrats during a private call last week that he supports legislation that would permanently increase the child tax credit to $ 3,000 per child.
While Republicans widely support the idea of expanding benefits for children, some are opposed to the Biden plan for its price and others criticize it for divorcing the benefit of any job requirements.
Scott Winship, director of poverty studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said his concern is that a permanent child allowance could make parents less likely to work and reduce the number of families with two parents, as there would be a flow of money. government income. He wants to reduce child poverty, but is concerned that it could worsen factors such as unemployment and single parenting that contribute to politics.
“The feeling is that we won the battle against child poverty, but we lost the war in the long run because we created incentives that make it more difficult to reduce poverty,” said Winship.
This is the case advocated by some Republican lawmakers when offering an alternative to Biden’s proposal. Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida launched their own expansion of credit that links benefit to work.
Rubio, in a recent National Review article, called the Biden proposal “corrosive”.
“If lifting families out of poverty were as simple as handing a check to mothers and fathers, we would have resolved poverty a long time ago,” he wrote.
But the expanded benefits included in the coronavirus relief plan have set a precedent that could put Republicans on the defense on the issue. As the benefit currently expires after a year, the Biden plan essentially creates a potential fiscal chasm for child poverty. This could create political confrontation during an election year to see if voters believe that it is acceptable for millions of children to miss out on additional aid and become impoverished once again.
“When ready for renewal, Republicans will be in an embarrassing position to oppose payments to families through a credit they pioneered and defended in 2017,” said Samuel Hammond, director of poverty and welfare policy at Niskanen Center. “The alternative is to support some Plan B.”
“No Republican wants to take money from families with any income,” said Hammond.
Hammond helped to develop such a “Plan B” for Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, whose plan is different from Biden’s because it eliminates some other popular tax incentives to make the proposal neutral in relation to the deficit, meaning that it is unlikely that get a lot of support from the Democrats.
In fact, Schwerin suggested that, looking at the midterm elections, the attack ads aimed at Republicans would simply highlight the party’s votes for tax cuts during the Trump administration, in contrast to its votes against the Biden plan.
“It’s as simple as, when it was a vote on tax cuts for billionaires, Republicans voted yes, and when it was a check for you, they voted no,” he said.