Today's Progressive Talking Points 10/3/05

Leaving No Child Left Behind (Except 19.5 Million)

Displaying the results of the administration’s increased efforts to fight poverty in the aftermath of both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group in Washington, is releasing a report today concluding that the administration has left behind 19.5 million low-income children . These children belong to families that are too poor to receive the full $1,000 child tax credit Bush signed into law in 2001 and updated in 2003. In 2001, Bush declared, "Tax relief is compassionate"; however, the study demonstrates that the administration's policies exist only to benefit those at the top of our nation’s income scale while leaving middle-class and low-income families behind.

* Under President Bush’s tax credit system, those who need the most help receive the least assistance. Under the current system, the $47 billion Child Tax Credit prohibits families earning less than $11,000 from receiving the full credit. Families receive $150 for every $1,000 they earn in excess of $11,000, capping out at a maximum tax credit of $1,000. Thus families earning $100,000 can earn the full tax credit, while those toiling on minimum wage can receive nothing.

* Poor minorities are continually left behind. Fifty percent of black children are in families too poor to receive the full credit and 47 percent of Hispanic children are in families too poor to claim the full credit. This number stands in stark contrast to the 18 percent of white children in families too poor to claim the full credit. On average, the tax credit pays $721 to white children, $564 to black children and $638 to Hispanic children. President Bush’s tax credit also excludes one in five children of active-duty U.S. military families. In addition to leaving poor minority children behind, add the child tax credit to the growing number of items, such as veterans’ health care and body armor, which the president has failed to provide to our nation’s troops.

* Bush’s tax policies are neither fair nor principled. If the Bush administration is serious about rebuilding in the wake of the social and economic devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, its tax policies must change. Fifty-four percent of the 2001 tax cuts, which will not go into effect until January 1, 2006, will go to the top 0.2 percent, and 97 percent of the cuts will go to the 3.7 percent of households that have incomes of over $200,000 a year. The rest of the population, the 96 percent of households with incomes below $200,000, will receive only 3 percent of the tax cuts.