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, January 27, 2023
The debt ceiling edition. There just might be some good news on the COVID-19 front. New cases, hospitalizations, stays in ICUs and test positivity are all down sharply, compared with two weeks ago. This follows a post holiday bump reported in early to mid January. Meanwhile, the “tripledemic” of RSV, flu, and COVID-19 is easing off, as hospitals nationwide report improving conditions.
On the Congressional front, there is no good news to report. In fact, storm clouds approach – and they could affect most households in America. Last week, the U.S. outstanding debt hit its statutory limit, and the Department of Treasury began taking “extraordinary measures,” which should allow us to stave off an emergency until perhaps early June. If the U.S. defaults on its debt, it will be unable to fully pay Social Security benefits, reimburse doctors for Medicare and Medicaid, meet payroll for all of our soldiers, issue tax refunds, continue payments on our current debt and so much more – and that’s just in the short run.
“We’re looking at as early as June for a train wreck on this issue,” Dan Adcock, Director of Government Relations and Policy at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told CNBC. “The consequences are dire, because a default would not only disrupt Social Security and Medicare benefits, but also cause a global recession and worse.”
The Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens, a leading economist, agreesthat a “recession is guaranteed” if the U.S. defaults on its debt. This would hurt all of us – but it would hurt people with low incomes, people of color, and women the most.
But some in Congress, instead of working to find a way out of this self-made crisis, want to use the debt ceiling as time bomb to force the Biden Administration to agree to deep – very deep – spending cuts. These too would fall hardest on people with low incomes, people of color, the young and old, women, and those with disabilities or ill
For all the stats below, think about how many would be hurt by a debt ceiling “train wreck” or by massive cuts.
66 million/
59 million
In 2022, an averageof 66 million seniors received a Social Security check each month. And more than 59 million people were enrolled in a Medicare plan. Some in Congress want to place cuts to both programs on the table. Tweet this.
85%
Republicans have proposed balancing the budget within 10 years. But some have said cuts to defense, veterans’ affairs, Medicare, and Social Security are off the table. With these programs exempt, Congress would have to cut all other programs by 85 percent in order to balance the budget within a decade, according to a new report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Tweet this.
410,000
From February 2020 to November 2021, the number of workers in nursing homes and other assisted living facilities droppedby 410,000 nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Staffing has only rebounded by 103,000 since then. Experts attribute the sharp decline to low pay, poor work conditions, and fear of exposure to COVID-19. Tweet this.
16.3 million
On Wednesday, January 25, the Biden Administration announcedthat 16.3 million people signed up for health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace during the most recent enrollment period, which in most states ended earlier this month. That’s up from about 14.5 million people just one year ago – which in itself was a record. Experts attribute the surge in enrollment to provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act that made it easier for potential enrollees to qualify for subsidies. Tweet this.
71%/27%
A new pollreleased last week shows that state proposals restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ students in schools, sports, and doctors’ offices have left these students angry, sad, and stressed. The poll, conducted by Morning Consult and The Trevor Project, found that 71 percent of those surveyed said that debates around state laws restricting their rights had negatively affected their mental health; 27 percent characterized the negative effect as severe. Tweet this.
49.1%/37.2%
The new, aggressive omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 made up 49.1 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S. for the week ending Saturday, January 21. The previous week, this subvariant accounted for 37.2 percent of all cases.
80%/70%
A whopping 80 percent of Mississippians, including 70 percent of Republicans, either strongly agree or somewhat agree that “the state should accept federal funds to expand Medicaid.” That’s according to a recent poll released last week by Mississippi Today/Siena College. Just 14 percent of respondents disagreed; 6 percent didn’t know or had no opinion.
38
Health officials say 38 rural hospitals in Mississippi are in danger of closing, mostly because they often are not reimbursed for caring for indigent patients. As many as 300,000 Mississippians have no health care coverage. Medicaid expansion would add $1 billion in federal funds to the state’s coffers.
19,000
The numberof Wyoming residents who could benefit from Medicaid expansion. Last week, a Wyoming House committee approved a Medicaid expansion bill and forwarded it to the full House for consideration. Wyoming is the only Mountain West state thus far to opt against expansion.
$370 million/
$450 million
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, has proposed Medicaid expansion as part of her budget proposal to the Kansas Legislature. However, her proposal appears to be a nonstarter among Kansas Republicans, despite the fact that it would bring in $370 million – $450 million in federal funds, and would provide health care coverage for an additional 150,000 Kansans.
January 27, 2023 