Democrats are trying to position Republicans as unsympathetic to working families after a bill to increase the child tax credit failed in the Senate on August 1.
Before a vote that would have sent the bill to the next stage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked, “Will Senate Republicans join us to give Americans a tax break?”
The answer to the bill was “no.” Republicans who opposed the bill said they wanted another opportunity in the future to get a better bill to tackle the issue. Naturally, Schumer characterized the GOP’s lack of cooperation as a move against the interests of poor and working class Americans and small businesses.
The bill would have needed at least 60 votes to advance to the next round, but it got only 48. Forty-four Senators opposed the bill. But a few Republicans voted yes, including Missouri’s Josh Hawley, Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, and Rick Scott of Florida. Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia also voted to advance the proposal.
Both the GOP and Democrats are trying to come out on the right side of legislative issues they believe will get them voters in the November elections. Schumer would like to use the issue to position Republicans as the barrier to helping working families; he claimed the bill would have assisted 16 million American families. JD Vance, Republican Senator from Ohio and now Donald Trump’s pick for vice president on his ticket, has forcefully labeled the Democrats as “anti-family,” which Schumer may be reacting to.
The legislation started out this January in the House and would have represented almost $80 billion in spending. But so far it has not gone far in the Senate. Republicans wanted to route the bill through the Senate Finance Committee, which would allow them to propose amendments, but this did not occur.
Currently, the child tax credit is worth $2,000 per child to families with children. The legislation would have given poor families more money back, allowing them to get a direct refund even if they did not make enough money that they could take the tax credit otherwise.
Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, excoriated the bill, calling it “cash welfare instead of relief for working taxpayers.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a leftist think thank, claims expanding the tax credit would bring half a million people out of poverty.
JD Vance has had many negative things to say about presumptive presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her policies, and he recently told media that she has called to end the child tax credit. However, the Biden-Harris administration temporarily expanded the credit to $3,000 per child during the pandemic, allowed children up to 17 years old to be claimed, and upped the credit to $3,600 for children younger than six.
Chuck Schumer said Vance’s claim about Harris’ policy on the child tax credit was “plain old nonsense,” and pointed to the pandemic-era expansion in 2021 to underline the Democrats’ commitment to helping working families.
