The number of children in America living in poverty jumped dramatically after just one month without the expanded child tax credit payments, according to a new study.
The new numbers represent a serious setback from the original goals of the child tax credit program, which ambitiously sought to cut nationwide child poverty in half. As part of Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package last year, the existing child tax credit program was massively reshaped, boosting the amount of the payments, greatly expanding the pool of eligible families and delivering the money in monthly installments designed to be incorporated into day-to-day household budgets.
Republican lawmakers are generally unified in opposition to the expanded tax credit — describing it as excessive, inflationary and a disincentive to work. But when it was originally passed, many Democrats openly declared their intention to make the payments a permanent anchor of the American social safety net.
Instead the 50-member Democratic bloc in the Senate collapsed from within, with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin holding out on his vote for weeks before finally refusing to endorse Biden's social spending package. Manchin cited his opposition to the child tax credit's massive price tag among his reservations with the bill.Democratic New Mexico Sen.
Allison Johnson, the organization's campaign director, said the child tax credit payments were designed so parents would “not have to make these really hard choices,” she said.