The Child Tax Credit

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I first want to say thank you to Senators Brown, Bennet, and Booker for keeping a spotlight on this issue. I must admit, however, on this issue, when I say Senators Brown, Bennet, and Booker, I think about the multiple choice questionnaires we got in school, and I am wondering how a guy with a last name ``Warnock'' got to be a part of this effort, but I am grateful.

I want to get right to the point. There are many reasons to move this Build Back Better American package forward. We have to build back better. We have a historic opportunity to make landmark investments that will strengthen our families, our economy, our care infrastructure, including expanding Medicaid benefits to more than 4 million Americans. We have got 600,000 Georgians in the Medicaid gap. We have got to provide critical debt relief for small farmers who have taken a financial hit during the pandemic. All of these things are covered in this Build Back Better agenda.

But the other top priority of mine, and why we are all here today, is that we have a chance to extend the expanded child tax credit. We have already seen it making a difference in the lives of over 2.2 million children just in Georgia alone.

I want to be clear about who this tax cut helps because people who have no vision engage in division, and sometimes when we are discussing these policies, we need to slow down and make sure folk know exactly whom we are talking about.

Ninety-seven percent--97 percent--of American families with children would benefit from this tax cut. After we passed the American Rescue Plan, we significantly expanded the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

To put more money in the pockets of working families, I remember that Senator Booker--actually, Senator Bennet called me from his car. He was on his way back home. I had just gotten elected, and just a few short months after I got elected, we passed the American Rescue Plan because we won the majority and were able to do this. Senator Brown said to me: Raphael, this is one of the best days of my career because we were able to pass the American Rescue Plan with all of these amazing provisions, and this provision alone is transformational. Experts have said that this investment that we made earlier this year would cut child poverty in half nationwide. Think about that. One provision. Just giving ordinary people, hard-working families, a break cuts child poverty in half. This is good public policy.

But I will tell you what would be bad public policy. It is bad public policy to cut child poverty in half one year and then go back the very next year and double child poverty. That is poor public policy. It is not right, and it is not smart.

The expanded child tax credit is helping Georgians. And do you want to know how I know that? I know because, as I am moving across the State, they are telling me. And it is no surprise, when you put an extra $200 or $300 in the bank account of ordinary people, working people, it makes a huge difference.

In my regular travels around the State, Georgians have told me how this tax cut for working families has made a difference in their lives, made their lives just a little bit easier, especially at the start of a new school year.

A few weeks ago, I was down in Columbus, GA, and I met with some of the hard-working families who receive this tax cut. And as I stand here, I think about Dante and Alicia, a couple I met down in Columbus, GA. Their daughter's name is London. And I asked them: What are you going to do with this monthly payment?

And they said it will help cover the costs of school clothes and brain-building extracurricular activities. They have a very active young daughter, very bright, London. She came to the meeting. And they said that: We wouldn't be able to afford these extracurricular activities, but this extra support, just this little lift, has made a difference in our personal economy, and it has made a difference for London.

I talked to Will, who works as a local hairdresser, and the monthly payment helps his 12-year-old daughter participate in karate tournaments, a development opportunity that family would not otherwise be able to afford.

In another conversation, I asked a Georgia mom of two young, growing boys: Where would this tax cut go?

I said: What are you going to do with this tax cut?

Do you know what she said to me?

She said: I am going to buy food and shoes.

You know, when you give ordinary folk a break, when you give them an extra $200 or $300 a month, you know, they go and buy extravagant things, like food and shoes and a coat for their kid.

They invest in extracurricular activities because they want to see their children do a little bit better than they did. And when they invest in their children, in a real sense, they invest in all of our children.

When you give folk who already have everything they need and then some, you give them that money, they hold on to that money. But when you give money to ordinary folks, they put that money right back into our local economies and into our small businesses.

Often the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do. It creates jobs, helps all of us. And so the expanded child tax credit grows and bolsters our economy from the bottom up.

I agree with Senator Brown. I am just old enough to remember when folks were talking about trickle-down economics. And as a pastor, I have worked and conducted my ministry in these communities that have been hearing folks talk about trickle down for the last 40 years. The way to grow an economy is from the bottom up. The right thing to do is the smart thing to do.

The expanded child tax credit is changing lives right now, and we have a chance in this economic package we are working on to secure this investment for working Georgians and Americans into the future, and that is why I believe we should make it permanent, and I will keep advocating for that. But extending this critical tax cut right now is the right thing to do for working families. We ought to do it. We ought not just talk about it; we ought to do it.

The Scripture says, He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require . . . but that you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

I see the face of God in the faces of our children.

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