(PresidentialWire.com)- Millions of Americans who are receiving new benefits from President Joe Biden’s enhanced child care tax credit are jumping for joy.
Now, Juan Williams, a contributor for The Hill, is jumping on that bandwagon, too.
Williams broke down the effects of the enhanced child care tax credit in a column he wrote on Monday.
He cited information from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University that showed five million children won’t live in poverty because of it.
He cited a report by the New York Times, which said experts believe this extra money might “cut child poverty by nearly half, an achievement with no precedent.”
Williams focuses on the fact that the tax credit isn’t going to people and families who would be considered poor, either. A lot of families in the middle-class and working-class are benefitting, too. In fact, more than 80% of the children in America could directly benefit from the extra money.
Passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, the enhanced child care tax credit raises the annual credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child from 5-17 years old and $3,600 per child from 0-4 years old.
A family with children ages 2, 4 and 7, therefore, would receive a total of $10,200 in 2021. Last year, they received only $6,000.
The new law also made another change. It allowed parents to accept half of the annual credit in upfront installments for six months. Those payments started July 15.
That means that same family above would receive $850 per month from the federal government, and still be left with a year-end child care tax credit of $5,100 to claim.
New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker called the change “the most transformative policy coming out of Washington,” since the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Williams doesn’t exit his column without criticizing Republicans, of course, who have been mostly silent on the issue. They have called it “socialism,” as they have many of the other parts of the American Rescue Plan, and with good reason.
Not only was it a huge expansion of spending at a time when the country had already spent trillions in funds it didn’t have, it was passed unilaterally without support of any Republicans in the Senate.
Williams points out that the interesting thing is that polling actually shows that a lot of Americans have a positive view of socialism.
A June poll conducted by Axios/Momentive, for example, said 41% of all adults in America had a positive view, compared to only 39% in 2019. That same report found 45% of women in America have a positive view of it, while 60% of Black Americans have a positive view of socialism.
Williams then concludes by chiding Republicans in a way by quoting Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer The representative, who is the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the midterm elections in 2022 are, “going to come down to two different agendas: one is about freedom — one is about having the right to self-determine your economic freedom, your individual liberties. The other one is about big government.”
