Proposed Child Tax Credit (CTC) Policy and Its Expansion

Name
Tutor
Course
Date
Presentation POLS 170
President Biden’s administration’s Child Tax Credit (CTC) policy initiative emerges as one of the most progressive initiatives to eradicate a cyclic and concerning issue facing needy American families – child poverty. Many American children grapple with persistent poverty that hampers their capacity to meet their school expenses, food, or even mobility needs. This policy proposal cuts across all child needs, including urgently needed healthcare services, that ensure they achieve optimum health status. The two political sides, the Democrats and the Republicans agree that this problem has been troubling in many communities for decades. Unfortunately, they differ significantly in intervention approaches and political goodwill.
The proposed CTC solution has all the ingredients for solving this persistent problem. For instance, the proposers of the reform present persuasive arguments about the value of expanded CTC since it directly empowers disadvantaged and poverty-stricken families economically, elevating them from this deplorable condition. They provide evidence-based information to back their claims and illustrate the extent of the effects arising from this approach. In the last disbursement by Biden’s administration, the additional $300, $200, or more of the finances to deserving families translated to reducing child poverty by up to 55% within one year (DeLauro). The fall of over 2.1 million into poverty after the expiry of this disbursement proves that the approach is practical and that the cost incurred in running this reform is worthwhile in the long run (Greenberg). Such evidence is plausible and demonstrative of the positive results of CTC.
Despite the associated benefits, the opposers argue that adopting expanded CTC will create various problems. One of their leading claims is that the approach increases the probability of misuse by parents who might divert the finances for other uses such as personal expenses and drug abuse. They also state that supporting families with finances without work conditions creates a loophole that might diminish the labor supply in the nation (Edelberg and Kearney). A review of this evidence indicates that it is not persuasive because these opposers only use genera...