3/11/21 A Biden Boost Helps Families with Child Expenses

Among the many wonderful consequences of Biden’s COVID19 relief bill is the benefit it will give to families with children. For each child under 6, families will get direct cash payments amounting to $300 a month. For each child from 6 to 17, families will get $250. That’s enough to raise a substantial proportion of families out of poverty.

Right now, one out of five kids is literally going hungry, even with food banks helping. For many, their parent(s) are working such long hours that the kids barely see them, and when they do, the parents have the energy of dead spirits walking.

Under Biden’s relief plan, families will get half the benefit money before they file tax returns. These will be direct monthly payments. They’ll get the rest after they pay taxes, irrespective of how much money they made and irrespective of how much they paid in taxes.

This aid bill is a new thing under the US sun. Previous efforts to help families have not always reached the poorest families. Take the tax credit for families signed into law by Donald Trump. It benefits the middle-income and wealthy families more than it does poor families.

Here’s why: Often, poor parents don’t make enough money to reach that $2,000 in tax credits. They simply haven’t paid enough in taxes. They could get up to $1,400, which is a lot better than nothing, but families at that income level need every dime.

That’s one reason that politicians love to tinker with taxes: If people don’t qualify, the Treasury saves some money. Not to mention that fewer poor families hear about and understand how to use a tax tweak to their advantage.

Biden’s boost does away with that savage loophole. All parents will get the full benefit, no matter how much money they make. The total cost for one year’s benefits will be $100 billion. It’s a lot of money... until you compare it to the federal budget.

The United States is a johnny-come-lately to family support of this kind. Many of the wealthy countries of the world have had similar programs for decades.

The Biden boost is a one-year bill, but even that will be a huge help to hungry families. We’ll see how it works. Perhaps the results will determine whether the benefit can become permanent.

Do you think it’s worth the money for the United States to prop up families’ budgets? Do you feel a twinge of resentment if/that you didn’t have financial help when you were raising your own kids? Do you see any downsides to this plan compared to Trump’s? How about upsides?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-tax-credit-stimulus-covid-relief-bill-2021-03-14/