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Saturday 15 January 2022
Goodbye 'godsend': Expiration of child tax credits hits home

Continued from Front the following year. ceiving the payment, out administration would cut do better in school, they're
West Virginia families inter- of concern that automat- child poverty by 40%. more likely to graduate
But Democratic Sen. Joe viewed by The Associated ic government aid could The tax credits did not from high school. It might
Manchin, from Roberts' Press highlighted how their cause people to quit their cause an immediate exo- be 15 years down the road
home state of West Virgin- grocery and gasoline bills jobs. Yet his primary objec- dus from the workforce, but there will be more cost
ia, objected to extending have risen and said they'll tion, in a written statement as some lawmakers had savings in the future."
the credit out of concern need to get by with less of last month, sidestepped feared. The Bureau of La- One of the key questions for
that the money would a financial cushion than a that issue as he expressed bor Statistics reported that policymakers is whether bu-
discourage people from few months ago. concerns about inflation the percentage of people reaucracies or parents are
working and that any ad- "You're going to have to and that a one-year exten- with jobs increased from better at spending money
ditional federal spending learn to adapt," said Rob- sion masked the true costs 58% the month before the on children. Manchin has
would fuel inflation that has erts, who worked as an auto of a tax credit that could monthly payments began proposed a 10-year, fund-
already climbed to a near- dealer for five decades. become permanent. to 59.5% last month. That ed version of Biden's eco-
ly 40-year high. "You never really dreamed "My Democratic col- same trend occurred in nomic proposal that would
According to IRS data, that everything would all of leagues in Washington are West Virginia, where the scrap the child tax credits
305,000 West Virginia chil- a sudden explode. You go determined to dramatical- employment-population focus and instead finance
dren benefited from the ex- down and get a package ly reshape our society in a ratio rose to the pre-pan- programs such as universal
panded credit last month. of hamburger and it's $7-8 way that leaves our coun- demic level of 52.9%. pre-kindergarten, to avoid
Manchin's opposition in the a pound." try even more vulnerable There's an academic de- sending money directly to
evenly split Senate derailed By the Biden administra- to the threats we face," bate over whether the families.
Biden's social spending tion's math, the expand- Manchin said. He added credit could suppress em- "It's a moral question of
package and caused the ed child tax credit and its that he was worried about ployment in the long term, do you trust families to
expanded tax credits that monthly payments were inflation and the size of the with most studies suggest- make their own decisions,"
were going out in the mid- a policy success that paid national debt. ing that the impact would Michelmore said.
dle of every month to ex- out $93 billion over six The Census Bureau sur- be statistically negligible. Hairdresser Chelsea Woody
pire in January. This is whit- months. More than 36 mil- veyed the spending pat- Academics who study the is a single mother from
tling down family incomes lion families received the terns of recipients during tax credit are torn on how Charleston, West Virginia,
at the precise moment payments in December. September and October. a permanent program who works six days a week
when people are grap- The payments were $300 Nearly a third used the would affect the economy to make ends meet. The
pling with higher prices. monthly for each child who credit to pay for school ex- and child welfare. extended child tax credit
However, families only re- was five and younger, and penses, while about 25% Katherine Michelmore, an payments had helped pay
ceived half of their 2021 $250 monthly for children of families with young chil- associate professor of pub- for her son's daycare, as
credit on a monthly ba- between the ages of six dren spent it on child care. lic policy at the University well as letting her splurge
sis and the other half will and 17. About 40% of recipients of Michigan, and two other on clothes for him.
be received once they The Treasury Department said they mostly relied on researchers estimated that "It truly helps out a lot. It's
file their taxes in the com- declined to address ques- the money to pay off debt. roughly 350,000 parents an extra cushion, instead of
ing months. The size of the tions about the expiration There are separate benefits would exit the workforce, a me worrying how I'm going
credit will be cut in 2022, of the expanded child tax in terms of improving the figure that is not all that sig- to pay a bill or if anything
with full payments only go- credit, which has become outcomes for impoverished nificant in an economy with comes up," Woody said as
ing to families that earned a politically sensitive issue children, whose families roughly 150 million jobs. she loaded groceries into
enough income to owe as part of Biden's nearly $2 could not previously ac- Michelmore said the long- her car. "It's helpful for a lot
taxes, a policy choice that trillion economic package cess the full tax credit be- term effects of a perma- of people. It helps working
will limit the benefits for the that has stalled in the Sen- cause their earnings were nent tax credit would have families out because we
poorest households. And ate. too low. An analysis by the a positive impact on the struggle the most. I'm hardly
the credits for 2022 will Manchin has supported Urban Institute estimated economy, as children who home with my kid because
come only once people some form of a work re- that extending the credit grow up in families with I work all the time."q
file their taxes at the start of quirement for people re- as developed by the Biden higher incomes "tend to

Supreme Court halts COVID-19

vaccine rule for US businesses

cluded the administration addressing the COVID–19 health emergencies," Jus-
overstepped its authority pandemic, it has declined tices Stephen Breyer, Elena
by seeking to impose the to enact any measure simi- Kagan and Sonia Sotomay-
Occupational Safety and lar to what OSHA has pro- or wrote in a joint dissent.
Health Administration's mulgated here," the con- President Joe Biden said he
vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. servatives wrote in an un- was "disappointed that the
businesses with at least 100 signed opinion. Supreme Court has chosen
employees. More than 80 In dissent, the court's three to block common-sense
million people would have liberals argued that it was life-saving requirements for
been affected and OSHA the court that was over- employees at large busi-
had estimated that the rule reaching by substituting its nesses that were grounded
Associated Press
would save 6,500 lives and judgment for that of health squarely in both science
By MARK SHERMAN and nation's COVID-19 vacci- prevent 250,000 hospital- experts. "Acting outside of and the law."
JESSICA GRESKO nation rate, a requirement izations over six months. its competence and with- Biden called on businesses
Associated Press that employees at large "OSHA has never before out legal basis, the Court to institute their own vac-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The businesses get a vaccine imposed such a mandate. displaces the judgments cination requirements, not-
Supreme Court has stopped or test regularly and wear a Nor has Congress. Indeed, of the Government offi- ing that a third of Fortune
a major push by the Biden mask on the job. The court's although Congress has en- cials given the responsibil- 100 companies already
administration to boost the conservative majority con- acted significant legislation ity to respond to workplace have done so. q