* Progress Through Action releases ‘Left Out: The Children and Families Left Behind by the President’s Tax Proposal.’ Watch it now.
Last year, as part of the Administration’s tax package, Congress accelerated virtually all of the income tax cuts that had been adopted in 2001. Yet, inexplicably, both President Bush and the Republican majority determined not to accelerate a scheduled increase in the child tax credit available for lower income families as part of their package. Thus, while millions of middle and upper income households received substantial benefits, the most needful working families with children were left out in the cold. As the Washington Post stated, “Stiffing these children was not an oversight�?”
A measure to correct this “negligence” was debated by Congress last year. It passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 94-2, and President Bush vowed to sign it. However, when the bill stalled in Conference, the President, despite his purported compassion for these families, allowed the bill to die.
Those affected by this regressive omission, numbering about 12 million children, include children of 200,000 military families, many with members serving in Iraq and other combat zones, support workers in schools and hospitals and other hard-working Americans. Here is a table prepared by Citizens for Tax Justice that shows the number of children impacted in your state. Raising children is a most important and expensive undertaking. The face of our country tomorrow will be shaped by how well we raise our kids today.