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!
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CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship, April 14, 2023
The Tax Day edition. Tuesday is Tax Day, and the human needs community has activities planned. The message behind the activities is that we need to raise revenues reasonably and responsibly in order to invest in a care economy. A care economy will mean hope, opportunity, and prosperity for millions of Americans.
If the wealthy and big corporations start paying their fair share in taxes, there will be more than enough revenue to support investments in paid leave, child care, and aging and disability care. But right now, that’s not happening.
According to Americans for Tax Fairness, “[T]op individual tax rates are about half of what they were 40 years ago; corporate tax revenue as a share of total tax revenue has dropped from one-third to less than 10% since the middle of the last century; some billionaires pay no federal income taxes and others pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families pay when the growth of their investments are counted; and the top 1% evades $160 billion in taxes that they owe every year.”
Far from building a care economy, some in Congress want to take us in the opposite direction. They would take food assistance and health care away from millions of Americans by subjecting them to burdensome, bureaucratic requirements. It’s their way of enacting cuts to critical needs programs – make them so difficult to access with so many hoops to jump through, that those in need can’t qualify or just give up.
On Tuesday, the Coalition on Human Needs will join Americans for Tax Fairness, MomsRising, the National Women’s Law Center, Care Can’t Wait, and Caring Across Generations for an all-day social media storm. You can see the nifty social media kit these groups have put together here– feel free to participate! Another action you can take: tell Congress to pass President Biden’s budget. It includes robust investments in a care economy, and requires corporations and the wealthy to pay more of their share.
$8.4 trillion/
$1.7 trillion
The original George W. Bush tax cuts and their extensions will have added $8.4 trillion to the national debt by the end of this year. The 2017 Trump tax cuts will add another $1.7 trillion in debt through 2023. What’s more, some in Congress want to renew cuts expiring in 2025, which would add $3 trillion more in debt. Tweet this.
6 in 10
A new poll published last week by Pew Research found that 61 percent of those surveyed say that the feeling that some corporations don’t pay their fair share bothers them a lot, while 60 percent say the same thing about wealthy individuals not paying their fair share. Tweet this.
$80 billion
The Biden Administration last week unveiled a 10-year, $80 billion plan for the IRS to focus on customer service and on cracking down on wealthy tax evaders. Biden is seeking to reduce the nation’s $7 trillion in uncollected tax revenue to pay for things like fighting climate change, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and other human needs programs. More than half of the $80 billion will be dedicated to ensuring that rich investors and large corporations pay what they owe. Tweet this.
41 million/
>10 million
More than 41 million Americans currently receive SNAP benefits. But more than 10 million people could lose their benefits if a proposalby Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) becomes law. That includes households with millions of children. Johnson’s proposal would make it more difficult to continue to qualify for benefits by adding burdensome, bureaucratic requirements. Tweet this.
160 million
The number of Americans guaranteed free access to preventive care services through their private-sector health insurance. This free coverage is now at risk due to a recent ruling by a conservative U.S. District judge in Texas. The Biden Administrations is appealing the judge’s ruling. Tweet this.
1,205/861/
754
The U.S. maternal mortality rate increased significantly during the pandemic. In 2021, 1,205 women died of maternal causes, compared to 861 in 2020, and 754 in 2019. Black women were disproportionately affected.
$5 billion
This week the Biden Administration announced it is launching a $5 billion initiative to hasten development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments. “Project Next Gen” will follow in the footsteps of “Operation Warp Speed,” which developed COVID-19 vaccines in 2020. Experts have long called for this follow-up initiative, warning that existing therapies have steadily lost their effectiveness and new ones are needed.
Nearly 1 in 5
A new poll by Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly one in five respondents said a family member had been killed by a gun. That includes 34 percent of Black adults, 18 percent of Hispanic adults, and 17 percent of White adults.
+23%
Gun violence surged during the pandemic. There were a record 48,830 firearm-related deaths in the U.S. in 2021, an increase of 23 percent from 2019. Among children under 18, deaths during that same time period rose 50 percent – from 1,732 in 2019 to 2,590 in 2021.
48,183/+4.7%
There were 48,183 people who died by suicide in 2021, according to a CDC report published this week. That’s a 4.7% increase from the previous year and the highest rate since 2018.
April 14, 2023 