The Child Tax Credit Changed My Life. Lawmakers Have a Chance To Bring It Back.
This article was originally published by Other Words.
From childhood on, Iāve spent my life haunted by the ghost of poverty.
A myth exists in America that financial well-being follows if we just work hard and make good choices. But itās not that simple. At some point, most of us face unforeseen obstacles ā from physical or mental health challenges to lost jobs, economic downturns, and natural disasters.
Along with low wages and other structural causes of poverty, that puts financial well-being out of reach for about 140 million people in this country, the Poor Peopleās Campaign estimates.
The reality of poverty isnāt even close to the stereotype propagated by politicians who want only to fund the military and subsidize the rich while cutting everything else. This isnāt a lifestyle one chooses by being lazy and getting fat off some mythical government largesse.
For many of us, poverty means working multiple low-wage jobs and still being short on rent, child care, food, or the energy bill. Poverty means you donāt have stable transportation and live in fear of anyone in your family needing health care.
It means your children go without good winter boots or new clothes because you need the lights to stay on. It means thereās no time or money for anything beyond the scrape of daily life ā no waterparks, no road trips, no relief.
People donāt choose this lifestyle. Itās created by policymakers who prioritize corporate profit and bloated military spending over investing in families in this country. Yet they expect poor people to be the ones who feel ashamed.
At one point I was living the American Dream. Iād been a successful chef, even bought a house at 23. But the 2008 collapse flipped my mortgage upside down, and the single investment Iād been able to make for my future crumbled.
A few years later, after the birth of my child, I was cast back into the same poverty Iād grown up with. Programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC ā the program to support women, infants, and children ā kept our heads above water while I returned to university to complete an unfinished Bachelorās degree. But our heads dipped under a few times. It was exhausting.
By the time Iād completed a graduate program and weād eked out some stability, the pandemic hit. But this time, the help was different.
The expanded and enhanced Child Tax Credit in President Bidenās American Rescue Plan not only helped me pay my rent and monthly bills ā it helped me be a better mom. Relieved of some financial anxiety, I could spend more time with my daughter and commit to the post-graduate job search, ultimately getting the good job that I have today.
Now Iām financially stable for the first time in my life. But tens of millions of others wonāt get that same chance unless lawmakers act. Congress let the expanded Child Tax Credit expire at the end of 2021, even though it had cut child poverty in half. Subsequently, child poverty immediately skyrocketed ā a disaster.
But now, Congress again has a chance to expand the Child Tax Credit in a tax package that may pass soon. Frustratingly, the package gives more tax breaks to corporations that already pay little to no taxes, even as it modestly expands the Child Tax Credit again ā although by less than before ā and improves the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the new credit would lift 400,000 children out of poverty, make 3 million children less poor, and help a substantial number of the remaining 19 million poor children currently excluded from the full benefit.
Itās necessary, but not enough ā too much money in the bill goes to corporations that donāt need it. Again, investment priorities are skewed in favor of the wealthy and corporations.
Itās only when we prioritize the well-being of families that we will see families thrive.
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