There’s a reason voters are hearing more about the child tax credit during this presidential campaign, with both Republican and Democratic candidates voicing support for its expansion.
Giving families with children a break on their taxes is a popular and effective policy that reduces poverty and helps parents afford basic necessities such as groceries and child care. The child tax credit is currently capped at $2,000 a year per child and set to expire in 2025.
Vice President Kamala Harris wants to restore it to its pandemic-era level of up to $3,600 per child and add an additional $6,000 credit for families with newborns. Former President Trump has offered only vague comments of support for the child tax credit, though his vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said he wants to increase it to $5,000.
But we’re not putting much stock in pledges from Republicans to fight for working families. Vance, who has disingenuously tried to label Democrats “anti-family and anti-kid,” didn’t even show up to vote for a modest expansion of the child tax credit that his fellow Senate Republicans defeated Aug. 1. And Trump, whose tax policies while in office largely favored the wealthy, is a serial liar who will say almost anything to regain power.
That’s too bad. Because whoever controls the White House next year should follow through with a permanent expansion of a policy that’s proven to ease financial stress for families and lift children out of poverty.
The child tax credit was first enacted in 1997 under President Clinton and has been expanded multiple times by both Democratic and Republican presidents. But the most dramatic improvement came under President Biden with his signing of the 2021 American Rescue Plan. The law, which received no Republican votes, increased the child tax credit, made it fully refundable, paid it out in monthly deposits of up to $300 per child into families’ bank accounts and extended the full benefits to low-income children who had previously received less because their families earned too little.
These improvements brought immediate, life-changing benefits. Child poverty and food insecurity plummeted. Families reported feeling less stressed about money and their checking account balances rose, according to researchers. The monthly deposits provided a predictable source of income for nearly 40 million families, and left it to parents to decide how best to use the money. Researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy found they spent it mostly on essentials such as food, child care and housing.
But Congress allowed it to expire after six months, and Republicans have since blocked efforts to expand or restore it. So much for being pro-family.
It’s encouraging that Harris has made reviving and expanding Biden’s pandemic-era child tax credit one of her first major economic policy proposals, pitching it as important financial relief for working- and middle-class families. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has delivered similar benefits for families in his state through a generous, $1,750-per-child tax credit that took effect last year.
Vance’s interest in expanding the child tax credit seems motivated by an entirely different philosophy, including his fringe views on women’s role in society, his pro-natalist fascination with increasing the nation’s birth rate and his outlandish suggestion to give parents with young children extra votes and reduce the electoral power of childless people. Along with increasing the child tax credit, Vance wants to extend the benefits to the wealthiest families. It’s another reflection of a Republican Party that is always looking out for the rich.
For example, it’s true that Trump increased the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 as part of his 2017 tax cuts that slashed tax rates for the wealthy and corporations. But it was structured in a way that delivered most of the benefits to high-income families.
A married couple earning $400,000 with two kids got a new $4,000 tax break while a single parent of two making minimum wage saw their tax break increase by only $75. That’s because it extended the full tax credit to higher-income families but did not make it fully refundable, leaving poor families who don’t owe much income tax with only a token improvement, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities think tank.
Families deserve more support when rising prices for housing, food and other essentials are causing a lot of financial insecurity. Strengthening the child tax credit is a powerful and proven solution.
It’s a good sign that both the Republican and Democratic candidates are talking about doing more to help families with children. The well-being of children is in all of society’s best interest and shouldn’t be a partisan issue. But we think campaign pledges are more convincing coming from candidates with the track record to back them up. And when politicians claim they are pro-family, don’t just listen to what they say, look at what they do.
