Tell the Senate: Expand the Child Tax Credit now and reject attacks on low-income families
Cynical Senators are playing politics with the Child Tax Credit―and with the lives of millions of families with young children.
Some members of the Senate are lining up to block a tax package that will benefit 16 million children in lower-income families via an expanded CTC, despite a broad bipartisan House vote. Why? For some, the answer is simple: pure politics.
Expanding the Child Tax Credit is popular and is proven to dramatically reduce child poverty levels. So why are some members of the Senate trying so hard to stop the Senate from moving forward on this bipartisan package, and kill the CTC with poison pill amendments? Maybe because they think they can get a bill with more corporate tax breaks and a weaker CTC in the next Congress. Or maybe they don’t want to hand President Biden a legislative victory on an issue he has consistently championed. Whatever the reason, they are denying low-income families with children a bigger refund check just as millions of families are filing their taxes. We need Congress to act by the end of April to make it easier for people to receive a higher CTC as soon as possible. That’s why we are holding Senators accountable to take up this bipartisan tax package now.
The expanded Child Tax Credit included in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act would lift 400,000 children out of poverty in tax year 2023, rising to 500,000 above the poverty line in 2025. It would also add much needed income to about 16 millionchildren in families struggling to meet basic needs.
Click “START WRITING” to send a message to your Senators right now and urge them to reject the stalling tactics of politicians playing political games and pass the expanded Child Tax Credit for low-income families before the end of tax season. Children and families need help now!
☰
Take Action
Subscribe
Donate
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship, April 1, 2022
The move aside, omicron AB.1 edition. New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continue to decline, and deaths and hospitalizations are way down. But the decline in new cases is not nearly as sharp as it was two weeks ago – just 12 percent, compared with 43 percent in mid-March. And some states, including New York, are now reporting an increase in new cases.
All of this comes as omicron AB.2, a subvariant of its predecessor and more infectious, has emerged as the dominant variant in the U.S. This happened earlier this year in Europe and in Asia – and cases in both regions subsequently soared. Public health officials are bracing for a possible rebound in cases here at home.
But are we ready? Experts worry that Americans have moved on from the pandemic before it is done with us and that the U.S. could be unprepared for a new wave. Across the country, states and localities are shuttering mass vaccination and testing sites – both vaccination rates and testing are way down.
“We’re in this phase of this pandemic where we’re transitioning,” Aubree Gordon, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, told the New York Times. “It’s still really critical that testing is readily available – you can’t know what’s going on if you’re not looking at it.”
Meanwhile, Congress has been unable to agree on additional COVID-19 relief and time grows short. If Congress fails to act, the consequences will be increasingly severe. Providers already have stopped treating COVID-19 patients without insurance – beginning next week, they will no longer be able to offer vaccinations free of charge.
Without action, shipments of monoclonal antibodies to states will increasingly be scaled back. The Biden Administration warns it will need to cut back its planned purchases of preventative treatments for the immunocompromised, creating a shortage of these life-saving treatments for the people who need them most. If another surge does occur and more doses of vaccines are needed, the country will no longer be able to provide enough boosters for all Americans. We will have significantly reduced testing capacity, curtailed efforts to accelerate research into next-generation vaccines, and harmed our ability to help vaccinate hundreds of millions of people in poorer countries, a step needed to stop the pandemic in its tracks.
You can help. Write Congress. Tell them to get to work and protect America – and the world.
-12%/-33%/-44%
On Wednesday, March 30, 27,621 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the U.S., along with 702 deaths. That’s a 12 percent decline in new cases and a 44 percent decline in deaths. Hospitalizations were down 33 percent. Tweet this.
50,000
The numberof health care providers nationwide that can no longer seek reimbursement from the Department of Health and Human Services for COVID-19 testing and treatment of uninsured patients, as of last week. Another deadline looms: April 5 is the last day health care providers may submit charges for vaccinating the uninsured. Tweet this.
$20 billion
The amountin reimbursements the Department of Health and Human Services has provided to medical labs, hospitals, doctor’s offices, pharmacies, and clinics for caring for the uninsured since spring 2020. The program’s lapse will disproportionately harm Black and Latino Americans, who both have been hit hardest by the pandemic and are less likely to have health insurance. Tweet this.
150,000/2,000
Some 150,000 nursing home residents and 2,000 nursing home staff have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. since the pandemic began. This means just under one in six COVID-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes. Despite this number, nearly 1 in 4 nursing home residents have yet to receive a booster shot, and only 44% of nursing home staff have received a booster. Tweet this.
5 million
Temporary pandemic unemployment insurance programs passed during the pandemic prevented5 million people from falling below the poverty line in 2020 and potentially 6 million people from falling below the poverty line in 2021. Tweet this.
$360 billion
President Biden’s proposed tax on individuals with wealth of at least $100 million would raise $360 billion over ten years. About 0.01 percent of taxpayers are worth $100 million, or about 20,000 households in the U.S.
$2,400
Provisions included in the American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021 saved families enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces an average of $2,400 in average premiums. But those provisions are set to expire and families’ premiums will rise sharply early next year unless Congress acts.
180/96/14
As of late January, 180 vaccinations per 100 people had been administeredin high and upper-income countries. Some 96 vaccinations per 100 people had been administered in lower-middle income countries. And only 14 doses per 100 people were given in low-income countries. The latter figure covers 650 million people – a population largely cut off from vaccine access.
3.5%/26%
Energy prices rose3.5 percent in February and are 26 percent higher than a year ago. This includes a 38 percent year-over-year increase in the price of gasoline and a 24 percent increase in the price of natural gas, often used for home heating.
3.4 million
The numberof children who fell below the poverty line in February as compared to December, the last month expanded Child Tax Credit payments were paid. Over those two months, the child poverty rate soared from 12.1 percent to 16.7 percent.
April 1, 2022 