News Round-Up: October 30, 2017
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have proposed new legislation – the American Family Act of 2017 – that would dramatically expand the Child Tax Credit and introduce a new credit, the Young Child Tax Credit. Researchers believe the proposal would cut the child poverty rate by an estimated 45 percent — lifting more than 7 million children out of poverty. (Vox)
- James Heckman, Nobel Prize winner and University of Chicago economics professor, argued that expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and making it refundable would help low-income families afford high-quality early childhood education. (Forbes)
- A new report from the Brookings Institution finds that expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by 10 percent would lead to increases in after-tax income for working-class Americans. Researchers estimate that the expansion would lift more than 600,000 Americans out of poverty. (Pacific Standard)
- We blogged about a proposal by Gene Sperling, former national economic advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama, for an EITC for All that would expand the EITC for workers without dependent children. (TCWF)
- We blogged about a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that suggests refundable federal tax credits have helped push U.S. child poverty rates to a record low. (TCWF)