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 August 6, 2020
How much more will people lose before Trump and McConnell provide help?The House enacted its HEROES bill on May 15. The Senate has not yet acted; its majority caucus is divided.Since the House acted, the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has soared from 1.4 million to 4.8 million. We have gained back some of the jobs lost, but are still at least 13 million below the February peak, and now, as weekly unemployment claims have well exceeded 1 million for 20 weeks, job growth sharply slowed in July. About 30 million jobless people are now going without the $600/week extra unemployment compensation, and that is making it much harder for them to pay rent or buy food. In a nation where 600+ billionaires saw their aggregate incomes rise $42 billion per week between March 18-July 16, the Senate majority and White House have stopped more than $15 billion a week in the $600 unemployment payments; it will take at least weeks for state offices to start them up again. In the meantime, shocking numbers of people cannot pay their rent or get enough to eat. McConnell’s majority has not agreed to an increase in SNAP or emergency rental assistance, but they have proposed doubling the tax break for business meals. States are making cuts, costing more jobs and services. 158,000 have died. Our nation needs action now.
How many jobless people would be helped by the payroll tax cut that President Trump has now talked about doing by executive order, because you don’t pay it when you’re out of work. Tweet this.
More than half
51 percent of people lived in households where someone lost income from work (week ending July 21). From April 23 through July 21, the number of people in such households grew by 10 million, to 126.5 million.
2.23 million fewer
In June, 2.4 million private sector jobs were added; in July, only 167,000, according to ADP and Moody’s Analytics. The sharp slowing was said to result from the surge in COVID cases followed by more business restrictions/fewer customers. Tweet this.
One in five
The number of households that couldn’t pay their rent in the past month. (Closer to 30% for Latinx (27%), Black households (30%), households with children (28%).) The moratorium on evictions in federally subsidized/backed units expired on 7/25.
14.7 million
14.7 million people in households with children sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past week (week ending 7/21); that’s up 1.8 million since the week ending 5/26. 25% of Black and 21% of Latinx households with children did not have enough to eat, more than twice the rate of whites (10.5%).
12.2 million
How many people would be kept out of poverty through December if Congress reinstates the $600/week unemployment benefit, approves another round of improved stimulus payments, and increases SNAP, as in the House HEROES bill.
20
20 states have cut education funding (K-12 and/or higher education) for FYs 20 or 21 because of revenue shortfalls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
-1.9 million
1.9 million education jobs estimated to be lost in FYs 20-22 based on decline in state revenues going to education, according to the National Education Assoc.