President Joseph Biden

[Bene Futuis]

It should be clear now to everyone what the Trump Party stands for. But I look forward to the suckers twisting themselves in knots trying to come up with principled objections.

It's more important to the country to cry about Dr. Seuss or something than it is to help people crushed by a global pandemic. Edit: Remember how quickly and easily the Republicans passed a huge tax bill to benefit the ultra wealthy? Here's what's coming down the pike about that piece of shit, too: The top 1% of taxpayers (income over $732,800) would receive 8% of the benefit in 2018, 25% in 2025, and 83% in 2027. Awesome.

[The Feral Slasher]

It should be clear now to everyone what the Trump Party stands for. But I look forward to the suckers twisting themselves in knots trying to come up with principled objections.

I think Biden has done a great job on this. Still lots to get done, but a really good start.

[umjewman]

It should be clear now to everyone what the Trump Party stands for. But I look forward to the suckers twisting themselves in knots trying to come up with principled objections.

It already started. THE BILL IS FULL OF PORK! IT HELPS ILLEGALS MORE THAN IT HELPS AMERICANS! LOUD NOISES!

[The Feral Slasher]

I think Biden has done a great job on this. Still lots to get done, but a really good start.

Somehow I get emails from the American Prospect. I've never been to their website, maybe it is because I check out David Dayen's twitter frequently. anyway, i got this email today which i thought was worth posting. as i understand it most or everything in the bill is temporary, but it perhaps lays the groundwork for more progress. And I think there is a lot more that needs to be done, I am more pessimistic than the post below, but hopefully this is just the beginning.

Something extraordinary happened today which is worth celebrating—the most far-reaching expansion of government help to children and families since FDR.

A year ago, a universal basic income was a radical fringe idea. Well, we’ve just enacted it for families with children. And once in place, this will prove almost impossible to dislodge.

Imagine the politics next fall when Democrats propose making the child tax credit permanent, and Republicans propose a massive tax increase on American families. My sources say Biden is committed to making this policy permanent.

Consider the arithmetic. A family with two parents and three kids will be getting about $14,000 a year. It just happens that this is almost identical to what a minimum-wage job pays if you work full-time ($7.25 an hour times 2,000 hours).

This is revolutionary, and will compel employers to pay a great deal more to get workers.

Think of what it took to make this transformative social policy mainstream. It took a pandemic. It took the improbable Democratic victories in Georgia to get 50 Senate votes. It took rare Democratic unity. And it took the radicalization of one Joe Biden.

Even more remarkably, while the two previous transformative Democratic presidents, LBJ and FDR, had huge Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, Biden has done it with fumes.

Sometimes, things break right. It’s a day to celebrate

[revo]

Bravo Joe!

Nice to have a real president again.

[chancellor]

LOLOL.

You do know the whole Child Tax Credit originated with Gingrich, right? And that evil Trump dude already doubled it to the $2000/year it was at?

[GwynnInTheHall]

LOLOL.

You do know the whole Child Tax Credit originated with Gingrich, right? And that evil Trump dude already doubled it to the $2000/year it was at?

Trump will gladly pander you $2000 tomorrow for your adoration Today.

[chancellor]

Trump will gladly pander you $2000 tomorrow for your adoration Today.

Pandering is certainly not limited to one political party.

Mind you, I don't think it's bad policy at all - especially when compared to other tax breaks - but this is hardly an original idea. I find it rather funny that all Biden is doing is expanding a Newt Gingrich idea. But now it's "the most far-reaching expansion of government help to children and families since FDR." Even though the percentage of increase is less than what Trump did just four years ago.

[GwynnInTheHall]

Pandering is certainly not limited to one political party.

Mind you, I don't think it's bad policy at all - especially when compared to other tax breaks - but this is hardly an original idea. I find it rather funny that all Biden is doing is expanding a Newt Gingrich idea. But now it's "the most far-reaching expansion of government help to children and families since FDR." Even though the percentage of increase is less than what Trump did just four years ago.

Biden isn't anything special, but when you've gone without any kind of legislation that fits your idea of things that need to be done, anything is refreshing.

AND we all know Kamala is about 6 months away from being sworn in so, that he's standing and talking and signing his name is a plus.

[Bene Futuis]

Under the worthless other guy, 40% of the tax credit went to families over $100,000 and only 15% to poorer families under $30,000. 27 million children lived in households too poor to qualify. The point of what was posted by FS was not that there is more money now, it's that the manner in which it is extended has been radically changed and can now aptly be called universal, or at least the closest we've ever come to it. California expects the new plan to cut its child poverty levels in half. It truly is a revolutionary change. What you are trying to sell is pretty disingenuous and pretty obviously not the point.

[Teenwolf]

Under the worthless other guy, 40% of the tax credit went to families over $100,000 and only 15% to poorer families under $30,000. 27 million children lived in households too poor to qualify. The point of what was posted by FS was not that there is more money now, it's that the manner in which it is extended has been radically changed and can now aptly be called universal, or at least the closest we've ever come to it. California expects the new plan to cut its child poverty levels in half. It truly is a revolutionary change. What you are trying to sell is pretty disingenuous and pretty obviously not the point.

Do you know what number they put the poverty rate at for a family of 4 in California to reach that conclusion? $28K. LOL.... yeah, maybe change the poverty wage to eighty bucks a year and you'll eliminate poverty entirely, like magic!

Aren't the child tax credits for 1 year only, but people expect them to be extended permanently? Am I understanding this correctly? Sorry for the dumb question, I've had a busy few days.

[chancellor]

Under the worthless other guy, 40% of the tax credit went to families over $100,000 and only 15% to poorer families under $30,000. 27 million children lived in households too poor to qualify. The point of what was posted by FS was not that there is more money now, it's that the manner in which it is extended has been radically changed and can now aptly be called universal, or at least the closest we've ever come to it. California expects the new plan to cut its child poverty levels in half. It truly is a revolutionary change. What you are trying to sell is pretty disingenuous and pretty obviously not the point.

Hardly. This is originally a GOP concept, passed under Gingrich, signed by Clinton, and expanded by every subsequent administration from Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden. You can argue that Trump's plan put more money in higher income brackets, but the reality is it still put more money in lower income brackets than Obama's did. Moreover, Biden can't get to $3000 more than likely without Trump having boosted the credit from $1000 to $2000. In fairness, Obama can't get it up to $1000 without what the Bush admin did, and the Bush admin can't expand it without what Gingrich/Clinton did.

I'm all for it, as I noted. There's a crap ton of worse tax credits out there.

[Bene Futuis]

Do you know what number they put the poverty rate at for a family of 4 in California to reach that conclusion? $28K. LOL.... yeah, maybe change the poverty wage to eighty bucks a year and you'll eliminate poverty entirely, like magic!

Aren't the child tax credits for 1 year only, but people expect them to be extended permanently? Am I understanding this correctly? Sorry for the dumb question, I've had a busy few days.

The term "poverty level" is a fixed level of income as determined by our federal government's Health and Human Services Department. I was using the literal definition of the phrase. Not sure what you mean by poverty wage, but I agree that substantially raising minimum wages will lift millions out of poverty as well.

[Teenwolf]

The term "poverty level" is a fixed level of income as determined by our federal government's Health and Human Services Department. I was using the literal definition of the phrase. Not sure what you mean by poverty wage, but I agree that substantially raising minimum wages will lift millions out of poverty as well.

Sorry for the confusion. I was trying to say that $28K for a family of 4 is so far below the income needed for a family of 4 to stay out of vulnerable housing, food, school, etc, it's an absolute joke that they're using $28K for a family of 4 to claim they're cutting poverty in half. So I was saying why not just lower the bar so far that you can claim you've eliminated poverty entirely?

[Bene Futuis]

For everyone's edification, Biden's plan is being called revolutionary by many, not just me, because it:

- Raises the child tax credit up to $3600/year. This is chancellor's point and it's true, but it's not close to the whole story.
- Universally applies the credit. THIS is why it's being called a means test for universal basic income. It's not the same but it's easily the closest our country has ever come to the concept of UBI.
- Eliminated are the other guy's hurdles to actually getting the money, such as minimum income thresholds. You had to make a certain amount of money in order to qualify for the credit. No income meant no child tax credit. Poverty-stricken children with unemployed parents could not get funding.
- It's available on a monthly basis, just like the UBI proposals that garnered so much attention during the Democratic 2020 primaries. This is dramatically different than a lump sum.
- Again, that cash is unconditional. No drug tests, no work requirements, no nothing.
- For every dollar expended for children in this plan, eight dollars will be returned to our economy.
- This money will reach millions of families who were, obscenely, too poor to qualify before.
- Unlike the previous credit, this bill makes the funds fully refundable instead of having a cap.
- Kids that were 17 at the end of 2020 qualify - they didn't previously.
- And this is really why it's revolutionary: According to a 2018 assessment, converting the Child Tax Credit (the one built into the 2017 Republican tax bill meant to benefit the ultra wealthy) and child tax exemption into a universal, monthly child allowance "would reduce child poverty by about 40 percent, deep child poverty by nearly half, and would effectively eliminate extreme child poverty. Now that the money has gone up so much since the '17 Tax Scam, isn't conditioned upon minimum income or other requirements, and is clearly aimed at benefiting those who need it the most, we're looking at reducing child poverty by 50% or more. The added benefits of the Biden stimulus push that number even higher.

Revolutionary. It's about time we stop viewing poverty as a moral failing, particularly child poverty. Whatever we can do to stop our country's children from living in poverty is what we should do. The idea that children shouldn't suffer regardless of the circumstances of their parents is new to this country and is cause for celebration.