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**OCTOBER 9, 2023**
On the Prospect website
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**David Dayen** on the double donations about to flood
California's Senate race
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**Harold Meyerson** on the UAW's victory in securing union jobs
for the electric-vehicle transition
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**Ananya Kalahasti** on the absence of leadership
at the agency overseeing hazardous pipelines
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Can States Plug Gaps in Federal Policy?
Expansion of the Child Tax Credit is blocked in Washington, but many
states are partly helping. They can do only so much.
Last week, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law increasing the
state's refundable child tax credit from the current $180 to $440 per
child per year
.
That will put over $1,300 a year more in the pockets of families with
three kids. The Massachusetts law also extends the credit to disabled
adults and the elderly.
It's modest compared with the far more generous refundable credit that
was part of President Biden's American Rescue Plan Act, which provided
what amounted to a universal annual child allowance of $3,000 per child
($3,600 for kids under six) and reduced child poverty by 48 percent.
Republicans in Congress plus conservative Democrats refused to extend
that program beyond one year.
Ten states now have refundable child tax credits. The most generous is
Minnesota's, which provides up to $1,750 per child per year and cuts
child poverty by about a third. But all of these state laws have income
limits, unlike the Biden credit, which was universal except for the very
rich. Here is an excellent summary
by our friends at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The effort of states to pursue anti-poverty initiatives suggests both
the opportunities and limitations of progressive federalism. On the one
hand, states can indeed be the laboratories of democracy heralded by
Louis Brandeis.
We see that in California, which has passed laws expanding rights for
gig workers, requiring employers to bargain with tenant unions, and a
great deal more. And in Minnesota, the school lunch program is free to
all kids, so that there is no income stigma. These can be models for
eventual federal laws. California has long modeled stronger
environmental laws.
But on the other hand, as FDR was the first to demonstrate, only the
federal government has deep enough pockets to make a transformative
difference. In addition, the federal government can universalize social
outlays that would never stand a chance in states that are chronically
racist or beholden to economic elites. It's at the federal level that
progressive class coalitions can come together to pass legislation that
would remain hopelessly blocked in reactionary states.
Does anyone think Alabama or Mississippi would enact Social Security or
Medicare (not to mention civil rights laws)? Indeed, we see the sheer
perversity of states that refuse to take Washington's money to expand
Medicaid. And Medicaid itself, generous in some states, threadbare in
others, is a telling example of the inadequacy of programs that are
federal-state partnerships.
It's good to have progressive states step partly into the breach when
action is blocked in Washington, or to pioneer new concepts. But as soon
as we gain back a progressive majority in Congress, restoring Biden's
universal child allowance is the first order of business.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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California's Double Max
Dianne Feinstein's death creates two elections in California's
Senate race. That means donors can max out support to their favorite
candidate twice. BY DAVID DAYEN
UAW Makes the Brave New Economy a Lot More Worker-Friendly
GM's promise to cover its EV battery factories under the national
master agreement gives workers a share of the gains from going electric.
BY HAROLD MEYERSON
America's Pipelines Are a Disaster Waiting to Happen
The underfunded agency overseeing tens of thousands of miles of
dangerous pipelines has not had an official leader for years. BY ANANYA
KALAHASTI
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