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 February 19, 2021
The economy won’t fix itself edition. At first glance, reasons for optimism abound. New COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths all are down sharply. This week’s wintry weather caused a hiccup in vaccine distribution, but 12.7 percent of all Americans – 42.3 million and counting – have now received at least the first vaccine. After January, the pandemic’s deadliest month, It is now possible to believe the worst is behind us.
But several new studies out this week show how much we have suffered and how far we have yet to go in order to restore our economy and address racial inequity. Hot off the press is a new report suggesting that 20 percent of business travel won’t come back, and 20 percent of workers will work from home indefinitely. That will cost us millions of jobs at hotels, restaurants, and downtown shops, in addition to ongoing automation of office support roles and factory jobs. These millions of workers will need to be retrained – and that will take money.
Too, we learned this week that Americans’ life expectancy plummeted by an entire year during the first six months of 2020 due to COVID-19 deaths. But again, like everything associated with this pandemic, the decline exposed racial inequity – the drop was much more precipitous for Black Americans than for white Americans.
Given that we have an economic downturn that is punishing Black, Latinx, and lower-income workers more than others, and an economy that will not fully recover on its own, we need help from Congress. Thankfully, President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is progressing in Congress and could be voted on by the full House as early as late next week.
That plan would expand and extend unemployment benefits, expand the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, continue nutrition assistance, expand health coverage, increase housing assistance, provide fiscal aid for states, territories, tribes, and localities, provide funding for K-12 schools, and offer emergency funds to families facing hardship. Please tell your House member and Senators to cut child poverty in half by expanding the Child Tax Credit here.
71,757/2,620
The numberof new COVID-19 cases and deaths reported in the U.S. on Thursday, February 18. That’s a 44 percent drop in cases and 39 percent drop in deaths over the previous two weeks. Tweet this.
1 year/2.7 years
The average life expectancy for Americans dropped one year from 2019 to the first six months of 2020 due to COVID-19 deaths. For Black Americans, the drop was even more acute – 2.7 years. The drop was 0.8 years for whites. Tweet this.
2.7x/2.4x
Pacific Islanders were 2.7 times as likely to have died from COVID-19 than whites, as of February 4; Latinx were 2.4 times as likely. For Indigenous people, that number is 2.2 times; for Blacks, 2.1 times. Tweet this.
5%/3%/2%
5 percent of all white people in New York City have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 3 percent of NYC’s Latinx and 2 percent of NYC’s Black people. Given the likelihood that Latinx and Black people are heavily represented in frontline jobs, this shows a troubling disparity. Tweet this.
1.37 million
The numberof new unemployment claims filed last week, up from the previous week. That includes 861,000 state UI claims and 516,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims. Economists had anticipated a drop in the claims this week. The fact that the decline did not occur is further evidence of a sluggish economy. Tweet this.
24%
The percentof unemployed Americans nationwide who were actually getting benefits, according to a January survey.
1.3 million
The numberof additional Americans who could receive coverage under the Affordable Care Act marketplaces if the American Rescue Plan becomes law in its current form.
31%/57%
The lowest-paying industries accountedfor 31 percent of all jobs in February of 2020, but 57 percent of all jobs lost since then – stark evidence that the pandemic has devastated low-income workers in particular.
27 million
The numberof children in families with low or no income who would benefit from an expanded Child Tax Credit.
7-11 million
Between 7 and 11 million children livein households where the children did not have enough to eat in the past seven days. That compares with 1.1 million children in December of 2019. The current figure includes 28 percent of children in Black and Latinx households, compared to 10 percent in white households.
February 19, 2021