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John,
All week, House committees have been approving details of what's going to be in the final Build Back Better package, and from what we’ve heard, there are a lot of groundbreaking provisions included. Our job now is to make sure that in the coming days these critical investments remain intact.
John, we have no time to waste! We need thousands of people in every state to send messages to Congress ASAP! Tell your senators and representative we must make this historic investment in our nation’s families.
Take a look at some of what is included in this bill.
If passed as now written: children in the poorest families will be able to claim the full Child Tax Credit, on a permanent basis; and the CTC increase to $3,000 - $3,600 per child will continue through 2025.
The legislation also makes permanent the improvements to the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) which were included in the American Rescue Plan. That means the credit is fully available even to parents earning too little to owe federal income tax and the maximum credit is increased to $4,000 for one dependent or $8,000 for two or more.
We have also learned that the legislation being marked up continues the $500 credit for non-child dependents, makes permanent the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) increase for people without dependents, and provides funding for job training to help working people develop the skills to embark on a fulfilling career.
Take a moment to send a letter to your senators and representative to demand these critical pieces remain in the final budget package and call on Congress to offset the cost of most or all of these essential investments by making the rich and corporations pay their fair share.
Together, we must fight to ensure our tax code is built to reward hard-working families, reduce childhood poverty, and transform our economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. We must remind Congress that we can afford to make this historic investment in our people and communities when we finally ask the rich and the corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.
When Donald Trump was president, he ushered in a massive tax giveaway to the wealthiest taxpayers and big corporations. But, based on what we have heard so far, while the House Ways and Means Committee rolls back some of those giveaways, they still let billionaires and multinational corporations avoid more than $1 trillion in taxes they should be paying―raising just $2.2 trillion from the rich and corporations. That's well short of the full $3.5 trillion to fully fund the president’s Build Back Better plan. The problem is every dollar of fair revenues not raised from the rich and corporations is a dollar not invested in children, families and working people.
We are facing massive opposition from well-financed corporate interests. Here is how the New York Times described it: Business lobbying groups rejected the budget, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce slamming it as “an existential threat to America’s fragile economic recovery and future prosperity.” [1] We have to say NO―the real threat is failure to invest in education, health care, housing, and an equitable and green economy producing good jobs.
We will not have another opportunity like this. We need to fully invest in our economy by passing President Biden's Build Back Better investment agenda, which lifts up more than 50 million families through the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and dependent care tax credits―and reaches millions with health care, housing, paid family and medical leave, child care, education and much more.
Send a letter to your members of Congress to demand these critical provisions are protected in the final bill and call upon Congress to finally make the rich and corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
This is a fight we can win. Thank you for all you do to fight for working families and marginalized communities.
Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
1 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/us/politics/tax-plan-democrats.html
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