Buckeye Reporter

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Senate Committee on Finance hearing titled “Anti-Poverty and Family Support Provisions in the Tax Code,” U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called for an expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) to cut taxes for families and help them keep up with the rising cost of living. Brown also introduced Ohio mother Melissa Lester, who shared what the expansion of the CTC meant to her and her family.

“I often tell people that March 6, 2021 was the best day of my career. That’s the day that we passed the expanded Child Tax Credit,” said Brown. “By July of that year, the families of 60 million children were getting their tax cuts directly, every single month. We know what parents are facing today: the soaring cost of childcare, health care, housing – everywhere it seems like they’re getting squeezed. This tax cut provided a little bit of relief.”

Brown asked Lester how the predictability of the monthly tax credit helped give her peace of mind and allow her to plan her family’s budget.

“Children always need clothes and shoes. I used a lot of that money towards that. Children grow out of clothes very fast. And Ohio, you know is a four-season state, so at minimum, I have to buy clothes every season. Same thing with shoes, every season. Even when you’re shopping at places like Target and Walmart, the costs add up, very quickly. I would say on average I would spend, when I just had one child, well over one hundred every month just one clothing and shoes alone,” said Lester.

Brown also asked if Congress decided to restart the CTC expansion, how it would make her daughters’ lives better.

“It would help their parents cover childcare costs and be able to have money for other things, other necessities in life. Right now, our entire focus is just on paying childcare and then everything else is next. And I think if we weren’t spending as much money towards childcare in the future, I think how much I could help them with college because I worked my way through college on my own and was a first-generation college student and the first woman in my family to go to college and also to get a graduate degree. I want that to be possible for them. I want them to go as far as they want to go or even further. And I would like to be able to help them as my family was not able to help me,” said Lester.

Then Brown asked Lester if she would ever quit her job to solely rely on the CTC.

“No.” said Lester.

The hearing follows Brown’s introduction of the Working Families Tax Relief Act, which would cut taxes for workers and families by expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). EITC and CTC are two of the most effective tools we have to put money in the pockets of working people, help them keep up with the rising cost of living, and pull children out of poverty. Expanding them will give millions more Americans a foothold in the middle class and allow parents’ hard work to better pay off.

Original source can be found here.