Democrats are pushing for permanent monthly child tax credit payments. They might have to settle for a one-year extension.
CBSN
As lawmakers work to scale back President Biden's $3.5 trillion social spending plan, a proposed extension of the monthly child tax credit payments passed by Democrats in the American Rescue Plan may be cut short.
Democrats are trying to trim the Build Back Better bill to roughly $1.75 to $1.9 trillion because some centrist Democrats objected to its high price. As a result, the monthly payments tens of millions of families are receiving — adding up to as much as $3,600 annually per child — may only be extended for a year or two, instead of the additional four years advocated by the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. Democrats need every single member in the Senate for the final legislation to pass since it is nearly certain they won't have any Republican support.
Longtime child tax credit advocates, such Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, called a one-year extension a "very big mistake," and said Democrats could end up missing an opportunity to lift children out of poverty. DeLauro calls the expanded benefit "Social Security for children" and questioned why it should be treated differently from Social Security for seniors.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.