Child Tax Credit Update: Mitt Romney Wants To Send
Parents $350 To Soften Inflation’s Financial Blow...
In an effort to help American families face “ an extraordinary amount of financial strain,” a revised proposal to create a sustainable monthly child tax credit was introduced by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) on Wednesday.
The Family Security Act 2.0 builds on Romney’s original proposal by encouraging work and supporting pregnancy. It would provide parents with $350 per month for each child age five and under ($4,200 annually) and $250 per month for children ages six to 17 ($3,000 annually).
Additionally, the proposal claims that expectant parents will be eligible to earn $700 a month for the last four months of their pregnancy — $2,800 total.
“We must do better to help families meet the challenges they face as they take on the most important work any of us will ever do — raising our society’s children,” Romney said in a press statement. “This proposal proves that we can accomplish this without adding to the deficit or creating another new federal program without any reforms.”
Romney hopes the federal program’s benefits — supporting families from pregnancy through childhood, encouraging work, promoting marriage and providing equal treatment for working and stay-at-home parents — will appeal to Americans.
Unlike Romney’s original proposal, the updated version has a work requirement. The new plan includes an income threshold of $10,000 annually, indexed for inflation, with those earning less that $10,000 getting a proportional benefit depending on their earnings. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 3.5% of American families — single-parent households, primarily — fall under this $10,000 income threshold.
Like the current child tax credit, an upper income threshold of $200,000 ($400,000 for a couple filing jointly) is where the monthly cash program would start phasing out. About 10.7% of families earn at least $200,000, according to Census data.
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