News Round-Up: November 20, 2017
Top Story: The amended version of the Senate Republican tax plan includes a larger Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion but still mostly excludes lower-income families from the increase. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), under the amended plan, a single mother of two earning the minimum wage would see only a $75 increase in her credit, while a two-parent family of four earning $500,000 would get a $4,000 credit — up from $0 under current law. (CBPP, The Huffington Post)
- Alan D. Viard, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), argued that the GOP tax plans should include an expansion of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) to incentivize work and help lower-wage families cover the cost of child care. (AEI)
- Similarly, in a letter to the editor of The New York Times, Mark Shriver, president of the Save the Children Action Network, wrote that tax reform should do more to help families and children by expanding the CDCTC. (The New York Times)
- In what he calls a “tax reform no-brainer,” Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argued that Republicans in Congress should further expand the CTC and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as part of tax reform. (S. News & World Report)
- Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, urged Congress to expand the CTC to include unborn children by allowing expectant parents to qualify for the credit. (The Hill)
- The Oklahoma legislature failed to restore refundability for the state’s EITC as part of its budget agreement. The legislature received widespread criticism for its decision to make the state’s EITC nonrefundable last year. (Oklahoma Policy Institute)