Opinion: Democrats are blowing a big chance to do child benefits right – By Ryan Cooper (The Week) / Feb 10 2021
President Biden and congressional Democrats, led by Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) are working up the biggest overhaul and expansion of American child benefits in decades. As part of Biden’s COVID-19 relief package, they would substantially increase the Child Tax Credit for the next year (from $2,000 for children under 17 to $3,000 for children under 18, and $3,600 for those under 6), pay out the benefit monthly instead of annually, and change it so poor people with no tax liability still receive the full benefit — though it would still phase out for richer people.
On one level, this is encouraging. The truth that America has the highest rate of child poverty among rich nations because it has a meager welfare state is starting to become conventional wisdom, and this expansion of tax subsidies would cut child poverty considerably. Neal’s proposal is far to the left of Hillary Clinton’s similar idea in 2016.
But Democrats are failing to seize the golden opportunity presented by the pandemic — and by a well-timed proposal from Republican Sen. Mitt Romney — to clean out some of the policy muck cluttering up the American welfare state, and to build a clean, efficient program that is legible to its recipients. Instead they are trying to jerry-rig a yearly tax credit into a monthly form that is guaranteed to create a lot of problems and headaches.
CONTINUE > https://theweek.com/articles/965805/democrats-are-blowing-big-chance-child-benefits-right
