New Child Tax Credit = Poor Children Left Behind

Congress is getting ready to raise taxes on four million low-income families, affecting nine million kids: This week, the House of Representatives will vote on legislation which will change the threshold for the child-tax credit, a law which was intended to help low-income families. In many cases, the value of the tax credit has actually declined by almost 10 percent for low-income families, which, in effect, acts as a tax hike for these families. According to a letter from Leonard Burman of the Urban Institute and John Karl Scholz of the University of Wisconsin, "for many low-income families whose earnings have not kept pace with inflation, the [child-tax credit] provision actually magnifies the damage done by inflation." (For more on the millions of poor families affected by the shrinking child-tax credit, watch Left Out: The Children and Families Left Behind by the President's Tax Proposal, a film sponsored by the American Progress Action Fund in which parents chronicle what this missing tax credit means to their families. [more ]