REVIVE THE CHILD TAX CREDIT
Biden’s expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty, cut food insecurity in poor households, and increased brain function in infants. The program ended on December 31.
QUICK READ: “Poverty is a policy choice. By refusing to extend the life-changing child tax credit payments, 50 Senate Republicans are forcing a generation of mothers and children to go without the help they need to survive,” Sen. Ron Wyden.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
BACKGROUND
As part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, he expanded the Child Tax Credit, which provided eligible families an average of $4,380 in 2021. It accomplished the following:
Cut child poverty by nearly 30%.
Kept 3.7 million kids from falling into poverty.
Dropped food insecurity by 26%.
Boosted the brain activity in children of poor mothers in ways associated with stronger cognitive development.
It is one of Biden’s most successful initiatives.
The expansion ended last month, just as food prices shot up 6.4%, with meat up 20%. Food banks are already seeing a rise in demand.
All the gains achieved with the enhanced Child Tax Credit could be reversed.
Wyden is right when he says poverty is a policy choice. Without CTC, 10 million children will slip into, or sink deeper, into poverty. That’s clearly a policy choice.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin effectively killed the CTC when he torpedoed Biden’s Build Back Better social spending program, which included the CTC’s extension.
Last week, Wyden and four other senators wrote to Biden urging him to put CTC back into the upcoming spending bill and make it a centerpiece of the legislation.
Tell your MOCs to support the CTC.
ACTION One: Call the Senate.
Script for Oregon Senators
SEN. MERKLEY: Portland office: 503-326-3386 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753
My name is [--] and I'm a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
We need to have the Child Tax Credit extended. Helping children get enough food, which is needed for their brain development, is an investment in each of them and in our country’s future.
SEN. WYDEN:
Portland office: 503-326-7525 | D.C. office: 202-224-5244
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
We need to have the Child Tax Credit extended. Helping children get enough food, which is needed for their brain development, is an investment in each of them and in our country’s future.
Script for Republican Senators
D.C switchboard: 202-224-3121
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], [state], [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Do something to help your constituents. Support the Child Tax Credit and help kids prosper.
ACTION TWO: Call the House.
Script for Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01)
Oregon office: 503-469-6010 | DC office: 202-225-0855
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
We need to have the Child Tax Credit extended. Helping children get enough food, which is needed for their brain development, is an investment in each of them and in our country’s future.
Script for Cliff Bentz (OR-02)
Medford office: 541-776-4646 | DC office: 202-225-6730
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Do something to help your constituents. Support the Child Tax Credit and help kids prosper.
Script for Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Oregon office: 503-231-2300 | DC office: 202-225-4811
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
We need to have the Child Tax Credit extended. Helping children get enough food, which is needed for their brain development, is an investment in each of them and in our country’s future.
Script for Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Eugene office: 541-465-6732 | DC office: 202-225-6416
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
We need to have the Child Tax Credit extended. Helping children get enough food, which is needed for their brain development, is an investment in each of them and in our country’s future.
Script for Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Salem office: 503-588-9100 | DC office: 202-225-5711
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
We need to have the Child Tax Credit extended. Helping children get enough food, which is needed for their brain development, is an investment in each of them and in our country’s future.
ACTION 3: “GOOD TROUBLE”
Below are opportunities to fight for our democracy. As John Lewis said, make some “good trouble.”
Join Indivisible Oregon.
Learn about persuasive language and communication research at the Zoom ASO Movement Briefings every second Wednesday.
Join the campaign to hold the House and Senate at GiveNoGround.org
Work to protect democracy in the House by replacing retiring US Representative Peter DeFazio with another Democrat, replacing Democrat Kurt Schrader, the “Manchin of the House,” with a progressive, and electing a Democrat in Oregon’s new Congressional District 6.
Demand your primary news source stop creating false equivalencies and just report the truth.
Check out the Poor People's Campaign Readies 'Massive, Nonviolent' Effort to Save Democracy
Outside of Portland? Check out COIN Oregon.
Center for Common Ground is starting new Reclaim Our Vote campaigns: TEXAS Primary is First! Writing to 730,000 Black registered voters in Texas, urging them to vote in the upcoming March 1st Primary. Only 1 in 25 Texas voters participate in primaries. Postcards For Texas with Center for Common Ground. And phone banks!
Fridays at 4 - Letter and Postcard Writing — Indivisible Oregon.
FURTHER READING:
The Children Joe Manchin Left Behind | The New Republic
Cash Aid to Poor Mothers Increases Brain Activity in Babies, Study Finds - The New York Times
Food Insecurity Reaches Five Month High as Child Tax Credit Payments End - Bloomberg
Senate Democrats urge Biden to get beefed-up child tax credit into spending deal | TheHill
