Page 28 - bon-dia-aruba-20210716

A28 U.S. NewS
Diabierna 16 Juli 2021

Child tax credit starts hitting US families’ bank accounts

(AP) — The child tax
credit had always been an
empty gesture to millions
of parents like Tamika
Daniel.

That changed Thursday
when the first payment of
$1,000 hit Daniel’s bank ac-
count — and dollars started
flowing to the pockets of
more than 35 million families
around the country. Daniel, a
35-year-old mother of four,
didn’t even know the tax
credit existed until President
Joe Biden expanded it for one
year as part of the $1.9 trillion
coronavirus relief package
that passed in March.
Previously, only people who
earned enough money to
owe income taxes could
qualify for the credit. Daniel comes in adulthood that will ca,” the president said. “Mil- costs of housing, child care credit would raise income by
went nearly a decade without help economic growth. But lions of children and their and health care. He said his almost 41%.
a job because her eldest son many Republicans warn that families, starting today, their voters back in Colorado are
is autistic and needed her. So the payments will discourage lives are about to change for concerned that their children The tax credit is as much
she got by on Social Secu- parents from working and ul- the better. And our country will be poorer than previous about keeping people in the
rity payments. And she had timately feed into long-term would be better off for it as generations and that requires middle class as it is about lift-
to live at Fairfield Courts, a poverty. well.” the expansion of the child tax ing up the poor.
public housing project that credit.
dead-ends at Interstate 64 as Some 15 million house- Florida Republican Sen. Katie Strelka, of Brookfield,
the highway cuts through the holds will now receive the Marco Rubio, who success- “It’s the most progressive Wisconsin, was laid off from
Virginia capital of Richmond. full credit. The monthly fully championed increas- change to America’s tax code her job as a beauty and hair
payments amount to $300 ing the credit in 2017, said ever,” Bennet told reporters. care products buyer for the
But the extra $1,000 a month for each child who is 5 and that the Democrats’ plans Kohl’s department store
for the next year could be a younger and $250 for those will turn the benefits into an Parenthood is an expensive chain in September as the
life-changer for Daniel, who between 5 and 17. The pay- “anti-work welfare check” undertaking. The Agricul- pandemic tightened its grip
now works as a community ments are set to lapse after a because almost every family ture Department estimated in on the country. She and her
organizer for a Richmond year, but Biden is pushing to can now qualify for the pay- 2017, the last year it published sons, 3-year-old Oliver and
nonprofit. It will help pro- extend them through at least ment regardless of whether such a report, that a typical 7-year-old Robert, were left
vide a security deposit on a 2025. the parents have a job. family spends $233,610 to to depend on her husband’s
new apartment. raise a child from birth to the income as a consultant for re-
The president ultimately “Not only does Biden’s plan age of 17. But wealthier chil- tirement services. The fam-
“It’s actually coming right on would like to make the pay- abandon incentives for mar- dren get far more invested in ily was already struggling to
time,” she said. “We have a ments permanent — and that riage and requirements for their education and upbring- pay for her husband’s kidney
lot going on. This definitely makes this first round of pay- work, but it will also destroy ing, while poorer children transplant five years earlier
helps to take a load off.” ments a test as to whether the the child-support enforce- face a constant disadvantage. and his ongoing therapies be-
government can improve the ment system as we know it Families in the top third of fore she was laid off, she said.
Biden has held out the new lives of families. by sending cash payments to incomes spend about $10,000
monthly payments, which Biden invited beneficiaries to single parents without ensur- more annually per child than With no job prospects, Strel-
will average $423 per family, the White House to mark the ing child-support orders are families in the lower third. ka reenrolled in college to
as the key to halving child first round of payments, say- established,” Rubio said in a study social work in Febru-
poverty rates. But he is also ing in a Thursday speech that statement Wednesday. The child tax credit was cre- ary. Last month she landed a
setting up a broader philo- the day carried a historic res- ated in 1997 to be a source new job as an assistant execu-
sophical battle about the role onance because of the boost The administration disputed of relief, yet it also became tive director for the nonprof-
of government and the re- it will give families across the those claims. Treasury De- a driver of economic and ra- it International Association
sponsibilities of parents. nation. partment estimates indicate cial inequality as only parents for Orthodontics. Now she
that 97% of recipients of the who owed the federal gov- needs day care again. That
Democrats see this as a land- “This would be the largest tax credit have wages or self- ernment taxes could qualify amounts to $1,000 a week for
mark program along the same ever one-year decrease in employment income, while for its full payment. Academ- both kids.
lines as Social Security, say- child poverty in the history of the other 3% are grandpar- ic research in 2020 found that
ing it will lead to better out- the United States of Ameri- ents or have health issues. about three-quarters of white All the tax credit money will
The credit also starts to phase and Asian children were eli- go to cover that, said Strelka,
out at $150,000 for joint fil- gible for the full credit, but 37.
ers, so there is no disincen- only about half of Black and
tive for the poor to work be- Hispanic children qualified. “Every little bit is going to
cause a job would just give help right now,” she said.
them more income. In the census tract where “I’m paying for school out-
Daniel lives in Richmond, of-pocket. I’m paying for the
Colorado Democratic Sen. the median household in- boys’ stuff. The cost of food
Michael Bennet said the come is $14,725 —almost and everything else has gone
problem is one of inequal- five times lower than the na- up. We’re just really thankful.
ity. He said that economic tional median. Three out of The tide feels like it’s turn-
growth has benefited the every 4 children live in pov- ing.”
top 10% of earners in recent erty. For a typical parent with
decades, while families are two children in that part of
struggling with the rising Richmond, the expanded tax