At the top of the list is the extensive child tax credit made permanent, which according to supporters could cause dual support and which, according to analysts, would reduce child poverty by almost half. Some lawmakers and outside experts expect the Democrats to also fight to keep the earnings tax credit expansion and a second child and dependent care program, while further expansion of food aid and increased unemployment benefits are likely as well.
‘To get something out of the [tax] code is often harder than getting something in the code, ”said Richard Neal, chairman of House Ways and Means (D-Mass.) said. “What we did will probably not go away.”
The approach suggests that Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion plan – as historic in scope and scope as it is – could only represent the first step in a potentially significant expansion of the welfare state and a major move toward the enlargement of the government’s role in helping the poorest Americans.
And that in turn can be a major breakthrough for progressive leaders who have been campaigning for broader benefits for years.
“We have focused on these issues for a very long time, but the moment we met,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Who first introduced legislation to make the child tax credit permanent this week 18 years ago. “We are ready to continue with a number of areas that have not yet been able to get that traction, that universal support.”
Biden said Friday that the bill “changes the paradigm” by moving away from the theory of fraudulent economics and putting working people first – the first time this has happened since Lyndon Johnson was president in the 1960s.
“It’s time we build an economy that grows from the bottom up,” he said, “and the middle from the outside.”
However, it is not easy to cement these priorities, as Republican Biden’s emergency relief bill speaks as an inflated progressive wish list and raises alarm over rising levels of deficit spending. The committee for a responsible federal budget, which is working to reduce the deficit, estimates that the $ 1.9 billion plan could double if the various programs are made permanent or longer than their current expiration dates.
In addition to the cost, other GOP legislators are concerned about the expansion of programs that have been adopted as temporary measures under the guise of coronavirus relief, if they have little to do with the pandemic.
“We need to see it through the lens,” said one policy adviser to Representative Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Who has supported child tax credit in the past. “Is it Covid relief, or is it just another democratic priority?”
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the leading Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said it was clear Democrats were “eager to create bigger and bigger” programs – the child tax credit, but also medical leave for the family and a permanent role for the federal government. in unemployment benefits. But he warned that sending checks to families would do little to correct the systemic problems they had suffered first.
“Their tactic of just spending more – which effectively lost the war on poverty – instead of addressing the underlying symptoms that caused the poverty, I think it will fail,” he said.
Brady said the inclusion of such generous benefits on a temporary basis by the rescue plan does not automatically mean they will be here to stay. But historically, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for politicians to undo tax cuts or tax credit extensions once they have been enacted. And Republicans have had more trouble arguing the deficit since implementing a comprehensive tax cut under then-President Donald Trump in 2017, a plan that also cost more than $ 2 billion, said Brian Riedl, a former years of Republican economic aid, he said.
“The prospect of a benefit stone that will soak up the middle class is far too unpopular for politicians,” Riedl said. He now works as an economic policy and tax expert at the law firm Manhattan Institute.
“The right way to think about this bill is just as much a down payment on a wish list of progressive goals that will go beyond the pandemic and the recession.”
The child tax credit, which has been expanded in terms of the new law from $ 2,000 to a maximum of $ 3,600 per child for a year, is the first temporary change that could soon become permanent, in part because Biden himself has voiced support for it.
According to a call with House Democrats where the president endorsed the permanent postponement, he said his recommendation to do so was to “listen to De Rosa”, according to three people who listened to the call.
Supporters of the child tax credit, which has also been made available to millions of low- and no-income families under the emergency relief plan, say there is momentum in both the House and the Senate to make it permanent. They are investigating whether Biden’s second stimulus package – another million-dollar plan the Democrats want to release by the end of May – could be a tool for the move.
If there is no progress there, Democrats could push for independent legislation – which DeLauro reintroduced last month with representatives Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ritchie Torres of New York – or to incorporate it into a tax package before the end of the year was accepted.
“It is fair to say that the child tax credit was the most important but least controversial provision of the U.S. bailout plan,” Torres said. “So there is reason for hope.”
Its expansion is also an idea that has garnered support on both sides of the aisle in the past – Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah submitted his own proposal last month on how to do it. And this is an area where Democrats see a real opportunity to make a lasting change, given how difficult it would be not to extend the benefit if families grow and depend on regular payments directly to their bank accounts.
Democrats and advocates also argue that the plan will pay for itself, given the amount the U.S. already spends each year to combat child poverty. And they are set on moving fast to include programs that they have been working on for years.
‘Policies like these were good ideas before the pandemic, [and] even more important during the pandemic, ”said DelBene. “And it’s incredibly important that we continue in the long run with the impact we can have.”