Romney’s CTC Plan is as Partisan as You Can Get
It angers the center AND the left
You may have heard that Dems’ CTC (child tax credit), which halved child poverty, has been gone for a few months without any hope of resurrecting it. You may also have heard that Romney was planning to save it.
OR you may have heard how utterly bipartisan everyone thinks it is.
But have you heard he wants to fund it by getting rid of the SALT deduction? The SALT deduction is a right-wing Dem demand. It's their redline. Here’s a quote from negotiations over BBB
“No SALT, No Dice!” tweeted Rep. Josh Gottheimer.
Think about that. He doesn’t want to lift Trump’s 2017 tax cuts but he will lift tax cuts on Democrats that likely benefit people who make less than the beneficiaries of the 2017 tax cut.
Like, they call this a compromise but want to guilt trip Dems into getting rid of a tax cut that benefits Dems before even thinking of getting rid of the Trump Tax cut. Which benefits R constituents and doesn’t even have to be removed to fund this, only reduced.
How is that a compromise?
The left couldn’t care less if it was removed. Bernie’s made that clear by now. The left WILL care about
- A family must have earned at least $10,000 the prior year to be eligible for its full benefits. Those who earned less than $10,000 could get prorated benefits, which does somewhat perversely mean that the poorer you are at those lowest levels, the less help you’ll receive.
- While the expanded CTC wasn’t available to couples with incomes over $150,000 a year, Romney’s proposal provides benefits to those with up to $400,000 a year in income.
AND in addition to that:
“More nettlesome, Romney finances his plump tax benefit by slashing $46 billion from the existing earned-income tax credit. These cuts would be deeper than ratcheting up the child credit, increasing tax bills for 7 million low and middle-income parents.
That’s unfair, as Romney would extend tax savings to parents earning up to $400,000 per year. A small tax increase on corporations or wealthy Americans — the former option won by computer-chip makers — would better finance Romney’s plan.”
And if he wants it so bad, why not find a compromise with Manchin over his licensing bill that Republicans WANT? I mean, they get CTC (and pay for it), a public compromise, AND remove Washington red tape like they always claim to want.
So this is a bill that alienates both flanks of the Dems, brings attention to Dems' biggest failure, and Romney won’t even make a deal to make it work though it's supposedly the height of Washington dealmaking. Also, the GOP leadership hasn’t mentioned it, Romney won’t speak about it and we know nothing about it even after the midterms. I can’t even call it a stunt.
It’s just sad.
