Cut Out the Poor Kids

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives voted Friday to change a tax credit in a way that would add $115 billion to the deficit and hurt poorer parents while aiding the well-to-do.

By a vote of 237-173, mostly along party lines, the House decided to make permanent the child tax credit and expand it to families earning up to $205,000 a year. 

The credit, which is worth up to $1,000 for each child in a family, would also be indexed to rise with inflation, as would the eligibility thresholds.

But the new measure fails to extend the part of the credit that was passed in 2009 to help impoverished families and that currently allows parents with annual earnings as low as $3,000 to claim some of the break. That element expires in 2017. Without it, a family would have to earn at least $15,000 to qualify for the credit.

According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, that means a mom working full time at a minimum wage job would receive no help from the credit -- because she would be earning only $14,500. 

Indeed, that mom would lose $1,725 under the new bill, while a family of four earning $150,000 would gain $2,200, according to the center's analysis.

About 12 million people, including 6 million children, would be pushed further into poverty if the measure became law.

Democrats contrasted Friday's vote with the speech delivered Thursday by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, who vowed to make a new GOP push to reduce poverty.

"Yesterday on the topic of poverty, Congressman Ryan spoke," said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.). 

"Today, he and his House Republican colleagues will vote. Actions speak louder than words. And at every turn over the last three years, the actions House Republicans have taken have cut programs for low- and middle-income families."

The bill would also end the so-called marriage penalty for the child tax credit, ensuring that a married couple would receive as much of a break as two single parents.