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February 27, 2024
Options for Improving the Child Tax Credit Provisions in H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024
…policy reforms better suited to the current fiscal environment. We recognize policymakers’ urge to expand benefits for families that have weathered recent high inflation. Nevertheless, if lawmakers intend to pass…
February 8, 2024
CTC Expansion Rooted in Desire to Roll Back Work-based Welfare
…frequently call them. For these reasons, the refundable CTC should not be labeled tax relief, and policymakers should consider changes to it in the context of the broader safety net….
January 29, 2024
Pandemic Unemployment Fraud in Context: Causes, Costs, and Solutions
…including eligibility self-certification in new programs, and degraded administrative systems without adequate defenses against various fraudulent schemes. State and federal policymakers should review the causes and consequences of these unprecedented…
January 17, 2024
Tax Extenders Package Would Cut the Child Tax Credit’s Annual Work Requirement in Half
…what happened when Hurricane Katrina struck in mid-2005 and Congress allowed affected adults to use 2004 earnings to claim the EITC and CTC. Lawmakers applied the same logic nationwide during the pandemic emergency. In December 2020, they created a “temporary special rule” letting individuals use 2019 earnings to claim the EITC and CTC for 2020….
January 11, 2024
Tax Credit Nation — Politicians Are Casting New Spending As ‘Tax Cuts,’ Hiding Their True Cost
…benefits. According to a Tax Foundation analysis, between 1990 and 2020 the value of tax credits “increased nearly 10-fold after adjusting for inflation, reflecting how lawmakers have increasingly relied on the tax…
January 11, 2024
To Better Promote Work, Stop Subsidizing More Benefit Collection
…of other government benefits in determining eligibility. Yet liberal policymakers today are proposing not only massive federal benefit increases, but also ensuring that growing largess is ignored by programs designed…
January 10, 2024
Even Congress’s “Tax Extenders” Are About More Benefits
Congress’s long list of unfinished business for the new year includes “tax extender” legislation, which is normally considered before lawmakers adjourn for the holidays in December. The fact that this…
December 1, 2023
Making the Child Tax Credit “Fully Refundable” Converts It into Welfare Checks
…According to press reports, policymakers are apparently negotiating a possible year-end tax package that would temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and revive certain business tax breaks….The CTC expansion reportedly includes full…
November 21, 2023
Defining Poverty Up
…and destructive behavior” such as soaring out-of-wedlock childbearing behind increased welfare dependence. Policy-makers responded to Moynihan’s call, and the bipartisan 1994 crime bill (which Moynihan supported) and 1996 welfare-reform law…
October 31, 2023
Lawmakers Continue Trying to Revive Pandemic-Style Benefits
…[is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Lawmakers applied Rahm’s rule liberally during the pandemic, providing record stimulus checks, massively expanding unemployment benefits, and far…