Category Archives: Taxes

Tax Justice is Racial Justice

Tax Justice is Racial Justice

Undo the Hidden Racism of the U.S. Tax Code

Jarrett Smith
November 16, 2023

 

Jarrett Smith, pictured above at an August 25 reparations event outside the White House, is a NETWORK Government Relations Advocate.

It is no secret that the U.S. suffers from a staggering degree of wealth inequality. Resources are increasingly concentrated in the possession of the top 1 percent, creating a degree of inequality never before seen in the country’s history.

This wealth stratification is most acute across racial lines. A Pew Research study in 2016 found the median income of white households was $117,000, while Black households had only $17,000. And while a white person in the U.S. has an equal chance of being a millionaire and having no wealth, a Black person is 20 times more likely to have no wealth than to be a millionaire. Between 1983 and 2016, Black wealth decreased year over year, and education did not stop this trend.

This vast inequality did not happen by chance. As NETWORK’s Racial Wealth and Income Gap workshop helps to illustrate, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Jim Crow, and centuries of the U.S. government’s racist policies created and still preserve this hoarding of wealth in the hands of a small class of white folks. Many of these policies shaped our tax system. Indeed, the U.S. tax code plays a central role in not only keeping rich people rich, but also rewarding white people at the expense of Black folks.

The marriage joint filing bonus, for example, privileges married couples, especially when one spouse makes high income while the other isn’t employed. A high earner can split their income with their spouse, and thus split their tax liability. Usually, these couples are white, as the highest-earning demographic in the country is overwhelmingly white. Because Black married households make the least household income in the country, rarely does one member of the household make enough money to enable their spouse to stay at home. Joint filing or married filing separate tax incentives do not help Black or Brown households because they earn so little income compared to their white counterparts.

In addition, tax incentives are structured to reward the things that wealthier, white folks can afford. For example, there are tax incentives for home ownership, but not for renting or for buying cars. Moreover, medical insurance is tax-deductible, but medical debt is not — penalizing Black and Brown communities who face inequities in access to affordable health care.

Long-term capital gains, usually enjoyed by white wealthy folks, are taxed at a lower rate than “ordinary income” — that is, wages, salaries, or even short-term capital gains. In 2021, an unmarried middle-income worker like a teacher or truck driver paid 22 percent of income tax on every dollar of taxable salary she made over $40,525. Meanwhile, a billionaire living entirely off long-term capital gains or dividends paid no more than 20 percent on millions of dollars of unearned income.

Over the past several centuries, white families have been able to amass wealth off the backs of enslaved and underpaid workers. They then pass that wealth on to their descendants, usually without having to pay their fair share of taxes on what is passed down. The tax code specifically protects this preservation of generational wealth in white families, and even helps it build up, by providing tax benefits to assets that are inherited. Under one policy called “Step Up in Basis,” if the owner of an investment or asset that has increased in value dies, neither the owner nor the inheritor owes any tax on that gain!

We know that for all nations, not just the United States, social and health outcomes — including for the richest folks — are worse in countries with high wealth inequality. Wealth inequality is immoral. It harms the most vulnerable and marginalized among us, especially Black and Brown communities, and it harms the wellbeing of the country as a whole.

The fact that racism is written into our tax code makes three things clear. First, it confirms that racism is systemic and is enacted through policies and structures. Second, the road to equality is reparations now, to begin to heal our society and close the ever-widening gap between those who have been allowed to amass and hoard resources, and those who have had to go without – so that all communities can truly thrive. And third, as we think, dream, and envision a future with reparations, transforming the tax code must be part of what it means to repair and build anew our society.

 

This story was published in the Quarter 4 2023 issue of Connection. 
Join the Thriving Communities Campaign So We All Thrive

Thriving Communities

Thanks for your advocacy!

NETWORK’s Thriving Communities Campaign ran MARCH 28 to JUNE 2, but our advocacy and lobbying for social justice continues. We thank all who joined our community of Spirit-filled supporters to advocate for food, medical care, housing, and other human needs.

We look forward to working with you again soon to continue the push for thriving communities for all of us — no exceptions!

Thriving Communities Campaign

No matter where we live, how we pray, or the size of our paycheck, most of us want to be sure our families are well-fed, have a warm place to sleep at night, and can see the doctor when needed. Some politicians want to cut food, medical, and housing assistance programs that struggling folks need to pay down our country’s debts. It is immoral to place the debt ceiling burden on the backs of struggling people. Our national budget is a moral document that must allow everyone to thrive — not just the wealthy. When wealthy corporations and billionaires stop getting unfair advantages from the government that let them dodge what they truly owe in taxes, our budget will have what it needs to take care of veterans, families, and anyone in need — no exceptions. Just as we did when we fought for the Affordable Health Care Act 15 years ago, and last year for the Infrastructure Reduction Act, we will press our elected leaders to provide the supports and services our families need. Will you join the campaign?

Get Started with the Thriving Communities Toolkit

We know what our communities need to thrive, and we have the faith and love to advocate for our neighbors, and we have the strength to advocate for what we need, because we are seeking justice together!

Ready to get started? View our Thriving Communities Toolkit here, download it here. You can also view LTE’s that justice-seekers have had published in their communities around the country. See a selection of letters to the editor here.

We know that resources are bountiful in God’s beloved community. There’s enough for all of us — Black, white, and Brown — to thrive. But House Republicans want to meet the burden of our shared budget debt by cutting vital programs that those struggling in our country need to survive, like WIC, SNAP, housing assistance, and Medicaid.

We cannot balance a budget on the backs of poor people. It’s time that wealthy corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of taxes.  Spirit-filled justice seekers are coming together through the Thriving Communities Campaign to advocate for a moral budget that provides for all of us… no exceptions!

The Thriving Communities Campaign has actions that we all can take to demand that Congress protect spending for vital human needs programs — so that everyone can have the food, shelter, and medical care they need to thrive. See our Thriving Communities Campaign Toolkit here. 

The toolkit has guidance, messaging help, social media hashtags and posts, images to share, and more to make it easy for you to participate in the way that best suits you.

Watch Our Thriving Communities: #CareNotCuts Rallies

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Thriving Communities One-Pager

The Thriving Communities One-pager helps you share the message of our campaign at events that you organize. It’s also a resource to help you persuade friends, family, and others to join our campaign.

This Work Requirements 1-pager helps you learn about existing work requirements and why adding such requirements is unnecessary and unjust.

Feel confident when you spread the goals and underlying messages of the Thriving Communities Campaign with this comprehensive talking points document.  url=”

Watch the Government Relations team explain why a moral budget is needed and how the country can fund our federal budget to cultivate thriving communities.

Watch LTE Training: Let’s Talk Debt Ceiling facilitated by the Grassroots Mobilization team. See the Letter to the Editor Training slides.

See a selection of letters to the editor written by NETWORK advocates here.

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Let Congress know you want to protect Medicaid, housing, and food programs like SNAP!

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Call Your Members of Congress!

Tell them to protect vital human needs programs in our federal budget!
*Dial 1-888-897-9753 to reach your House Representative
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*Dial 1-888-496-3502 to reach your Senators
(Call this number two times to reach both Senators.)

When you call, here’s what you might say:

“Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME] from [YOUR TOWN]. I want to ask [MEMBER OF CONGRESS’S NAME] to protect SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, housing, and other vital human needs programs from any harmful budget cuts.

Hard working families, people with disabilities, kids aging out of foster care, and others who need the life-affirming support are our neighbors, friends, and loved ones, and our nation’s budget must prioritize their needs. As a person of faith, I believe that it is immoral to balance the budget on the backs of those who are struggling the most.

Congress must reduce the deficit by having the wealthy people and corporations pay what they truly owe in taxes, not by making cuts to our neighbors who need the support that our social safety net provides. [MEMBER OF CONGRESS’S NAME], as the budget process moves forward, please reject all proposals that weaken access to healthcare, food, or housing programs.”

Our Values Root Our Call for Vital Human Needs Programs

No matter our background, faith, or color, most of us work hard for our families. ​This includes people that receive assistance from vital human resource programs like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Medicaid. Congressional Republicans want to make cuts in these programs to pay down our country’s budget. Instead of pointing the finger of blame at people struggling to make ends meet, our elected officials must make wealthy corporations and billionaires pay what they owe to our shared economy — so that everyone in our communities can thrive, not just the rich.

Every Member of Congress serves constituents that rely on Medicaid, SNAP, and housing, and other programs that help people and families eat food at night and see a doctor when they are sick. We must tell our federal budget makers to love their neighbors and protect these life-affirming programs.

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Just Politics Catholic Podcast Season 2

Build Anew Series – Tax Justice

Build Anew Series — Part 5
Tax Justice

Virginia Schilder
October 20, 2023
Welcome back to our Build Anew Series, with weekly posts covering the people, policies, and values at the heart of the issues we work on. This week, we’re talking about tax justice, and specifically, the need to bring back the expanded Child Tax Credit.   

 

It’s budget time in Congress, and many of our representatives are pretending that we have a scarcity of funds with which to fund our government. But that’s patently untrue. There is a simple reality: If the wealthiest Americans and corporations paid their fair share of taxes, we would have more than enough to pay for all the public programs our communities not only need, but deserve. To visualize this, I invite you to try out NETWORK’s tax justice calculator tool, in which you can build your own federal budget with programs you care about and see how equitable tax policies can fund them. The United States has one of the greatest — and

most dangerous — degrees of wealth inequality in the world. The concentration of wealth into the hands of an ultra-wealthy few is facilitated and maintained, in large part, by our tax system. For example, consider Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Founder and Executive Chairman, who enjoys a net worth of $155 billion, but did not pay a single cent in federal income taxes in 2007 or 2011.

A just tax system is a foundation of a just society, and a multi-faith, multi. In our past Build Anew Series piece on Economic Justice, we talked about how we as a collective have enough resources to ensure that everyone has what they need to thrive — it is only a matter of distributing those resources justly. Taxes can help us do that.

Congress now has less than 30 days to pass a FY24 federal budget. As part of NETWORK’s Congress, Keep Your Promise! Campaign, we’ve been urging our leaders to ensure that vital human needs programs like food, housing, and health care assistance are fully funded in the budget, and that the necessary policies are enacted to ensure that the wealthiest individuals and corporations contribute their fair shares.

A central part of a just tax system in the current budget process is the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC). An expanded CTC combats child poverty, supporting families as they provide necessary care and resources for their children. The expired, temporary expanded CTC in 2021 (the American Rescue Plan increased the child tax credit for one year) was a resounding success. The child poverty rate was dramatically reduced to a record low 5.2%. It kept roughly 2.1 million children above the poverty line ― including an estimated 752,000 Latino children, 649,000 white children, 524,000 Black children, 89,000 American Indian and Alaska Native children, and 56,000 Asian children ― and lessened differences in poverty rates between children of all races and ethnicities (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). Our children need it back!

In this week’s installment of the Build Anew Series, we’ll learn more about the CTC and the urgency of strengthening it in the ongoing appropriations process. First, let’s learn more about tax policy in the U.S., and why a just tax system is critical for a ju st nation.

Facts and Figures on Taxes in the U.S.
  • Refundable tax credits moved 7.5 million people out of poverty in 2019, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure.
  • A 2019 Congressional Research Service report calculated that the 2017 Tax Revision law reduced federal revenue by about $170 billion in FY 2018, with corporations benefiting most from the tax cuts.
  • According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the wealthiest 1% of Americans may be evading as much as $163 billion in income taxes each year — many doing so legally via our unjust tax laws.
Present Realities

Our unjust tax code is directly related to the economic instability experienced by individuals and families across the U.S., and it affects the wellbeing of our country overall. Taxes enable us to have the public services we all want and benefit from, and to make the investments in people and neighborhoods that are needed for our communities to thrive. If we want good schools and accessible higher education, safe and efficient transportation infrastructure, a strong health care system, and healthy communities with affordable housing, clean water, and food security, we need to collectively contribute to funding them.

Decades of tax cuts for the wealthiest people and corporations have harmed our communities. Our tax code actively creates economic inequality — one of the most pressing problems in the United States. Our tax code treats income from capital more favorably than income from labor, which means that those at the very top — whose income largely relies on investments rather than work — end up paying a lower effective rate. This tax structure enables the wealthiest people and corporations to pay little to no taxes at all, hoarding resources that they gained off the labor of everyone else. The 2017 Republican Tax Law benefitted corporations by substantially lowering effective corporate tax rates and by generating a flood of stock buybacks and dividends for corporate shareholders. Meanwhile, the law reduced federal revenue by about $170 billion in FY 2018.

Most nefariously, our tax system maintains the racial wealth gap. In 2016, the median income of white households was $117,000, while Black households had only $17,000. This vast racial inequity is not incidental, but is a direct result of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, and centuries of racist federal policies — particularly policies that shaped our tax code. Our tax system continues today to maintain the wealth of the white ruling class. For example, our tax code privileges white couples in the structure of the married joint filing bonus; it rewards how wealthier white folks spend money (with tax incentives for buying a home, but not renting); and it facilitates the largely un-taxed intergenerational transfer of wealth in white families across history. The outcome is what we see today: our nation’s wealth concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority of white folks.

Tax justice means ensuring that wealthy individuals and corporations contribute a fair share, so that we can support the public services that help our communities to thrive. It hurts everyone in our country when we have insufficient funding for public programs, assistance for families experiencing homelessness or hunger, or the infrastructure we all rely on every day. A just system of taxation recognizes that we are one community with responsibilities to one another, and our wellbeing is tied together.

Learn more at NETWORK’s Tax Justice For All page.  

Our Values

“The obligations of justice and love are fulfilled only if each person, contributing to the common good, according to his own abilities and the needs of others, also promotes and assists the public and private institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life.” —Gaudium et spes

One of the key principles of Catholic Social Justice Teaching is, “Rise above individualism for the good of the whole community.” This means rejecting an ethic that places individual gain above collective flourishing, and instead taking seriously our call and responsibility to promote the wellbeing of our neighbors. Taxes are a key way in which we can do this.

A just tax structure affirms the moral responsibility of each person to contribute to the community according to their ability. Material prosperity never arises in a vacuum. The resources that wealthy individuals and corporations have accumulated are generated by the labor of workers and supported by social goods like roads, bridges, schools, and fire departments that we collectively fund. Therefore, paying taxes is a serious ethical responsibility for those with abundance. It is also the responsibility of governments to use tax dollars in ways that meet the real needs and goals of our communities.

A just tax code can be a structure through which the values of sharing, reciprocity, and participation are lived out. These values were modeled by the community of Jesus’ early followers, of whom it is written:

“No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had… And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” —Acts 4:32-35

As a community, the apostles model the Catholic notion of “the universal destination of goods:” the deep conviction that resources are to be shared — used to respond to need and to better the community. Scripture emphasizes the moral responsibility for those with means to share: “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same” (Luke 3:10-11). Yet, it is important to remember that in today’s society, in which unjust economic structures enable the accumulation of wealth often through the exploitation of workers, paying taxes is not just a matter of charity and sharing. Rather, it is a matter of justice — returning to communities what has been unjustly extracted.

This is why a just tax code is a moral obligation. Tax structures can serve to widen the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us, or they can work as a mechanism of justice. In the U.S. Bishops’ pastoral Economic Justice for All, the bishops insist that, “The tax system should be continually evaluated in terms of its impact on the poor.” This also means that families below the poverty line should not bear the burden of paying income taxes. Pope John XXIII put it plainly: “In a system of taxation based on justice and equity it is fundamental that the burdens be proportioned to the capacity of the people contributing.”

The Catholic tradition teaches that paying taxes is part of one’s responsibility to contribute to the common good. We are called to equitably share resources so that each person has what they need to live well, and that our society as a whole has the structures and programs that help all of our communities flourish.

The Child Tax Credit

Advocates and faith leaders in West Virginia gather in May 2022 to call for a continuation of the expanded child tax credit.

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) was enacted in 1997 and currently provides a tax credit of up to $2,000 per child. Studies overwhelmingly demonstrate that the CTC directly reduces child and family poverty. In 2018, the CTC lifted 4.3 million people, including 2.3 million children, out of poverty. However, the current CTC law provides the greatest benefits to higher income families, in effect penalizing the lowest wage workers in our communities.

In 2021, as part of the American Rescue Plan, the CTC was increased to up to $3000, and penalties on low-income families were removed. This expansion finally allowed all families to benefit from the full CTC, regardless of their income. The 2021 expansion was an incredible success: it extended the CTC to the families of 27 million children who previously did not have access, and it reduced the national child poverty rate from an anticipated 8.1% down to 5.2%(!).

Lived Experience

Nakkita Long is a mom in Winston-Salem, NC with a master’s degree in criminal justice. She shares,

“This past year (2020) has been devastating for my family in ways that I cant even explain…. Giving $300 to families may not seem like a lot, but when you’re working minimum wage or you’re underpaid, it’s everything. It’s the difference between where you live, what you eat, and how your family enjoys leisure.   

For my family, the child tax credit has benefited me because my daughter started college in the middle of the pandemic, and my son is starting kindergarten. I was able to buy my daughter a laptop so she could do her studies at home. I was able to do things with my family that I wasn’t able to do before because my income was low, I was living paycheck to paycheck. 

Look at the cost of living, and look at what people actually need to sustain themselves on a daily basis. For my family, just the basic needs of bread, lights, water, having a car to get back and forth to work, have been a challenge for me. And the benefits of incentives such as the child tax credit, extended unemployment, free child care, free college, is astounding, and it takes my family to a different place as far as what we can do successfully and how we can grow. It’s important to understand that giving people what they deserve… empowers those families to build businesses, become homeowners, invest in their communities, attend great schools, become great leaders, and do great things in society.”  

From the Domestic Human Needs Story Bank

Despite this success, Congress decided to allow the 2021 CTC expansion to expire – with detrimental impact to our most vulnerable children. Child poverty has risen, and an estimated 19 million children are deprived of all or part of the CTC simply because of their families’ low wages. This has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown families, affecting approximately 45% of Black children and 39% of Latine children. It has also hurt rural communities, as 33% of children in rural areas have been negatively impacted by the expiration of the CTC expansion.

This is why we need to bring back the expanded CTC. A strong CTC helps provide essential resources for child care and other support services, and thus enables parents to work. It also promotes healthy children, as lifting children out of poverty is directly related to improved health and education outcomes. We know how well the expanded CTC works! To support flourishing families and protect the youngest and most vulnerable members of society, Congress must expand the CTC to its 2021 levels. Our children need and deserve it.

Click here to learn about how you can take action to demand that Congress enact a strong, expanded Child Tax Credit. And to learn more about the CTC, check out NETWORK’s CTC leave-behind.

Join us again next week for part 6 of the Build Anew Series on democracy, a follow-up to the third installation of our White Supremacy and American Christianity series this Saturday. And don’t forget to stay tuned on Instagram (@network_lobby) and Facebook for our Build Anew video series!

Letters to the Editor support the Thriving Communities Campaign

Thriving Communities Letters to the Editor

Learn how to write an LTE

Sister Eilis McCulloh, HM, of the Grassroots Mobilization Team, gives a short lesson on how to write an impactful Letter to the Editor. You can use this LTE training for any letter your write to publications in your community.

Below you will see a selection of LTE’s from NETWORK justice-seekers around the country who’ve reached out to publications in their area to advocate for our Build Anew policy agenda and issue areas. We’d love to hear from you after your LTE is published. Please email it to [email protected].

Other LTE Trainings

The May 2, 2023 LTE training below focuses on the debt ceiling. The slide presentation is linked below the training video.

Debt ceiling LTE training slides.

Selected LTE's

Kentucky LTE's

Mary Danhauer, Owensboro Kentucky NETWORK supporter, has a message for people in her western Kentucky community: “It’s time for Rep. Brett Guthrie to listen to the voices of his constituents who are threatened with starvation, malnutrition and death if these cuts to our safety-net programs are allowed to become policy. This form of policy death would be a public health threat to all Kentuckians.” Read Mary’s letter to the editor of the Messenger-Inquirer below.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR -- Owensboro KY

New York LTE's

New York NETWORK supporter, John L. Ghertner, MD, shared how proposed Congressional cuts to social safety net programs are harmful to our neighbors and loved ones, especially children, and won’t decrease our federal debt. Click the link to read the LTE.

Making it harder on children is not the answer

Ohio LTE's

Parma, OH NETWORK supporter, Judy Opalach, challenged U.S. Rep. Max Miller, OH-07, to live the reality of the constituents he placed in jeopardy when he voted to slash funding for Housing Choice Vouchers, and other safety net programs he chose to harm.

Read more from Judy in her letter to the editor of The Plain Dealer.

Pennsylvania LTE's

Erie, PA NETWORK supporter, Mary Nelson, wrote about the reality of the hunger in her northwest Pennsylvania community, how changes to the tax code (where the wealthy pay their fair share of what they truly owe in taxes) could help solve the problem, and the work requirements already in place on people who struggle.

Free, Voluntary, IRS-run Electronic Filing System May Be on the Way

Free, Voluntary IRS Electronic Filing System is Essential for Low-income Taxpayers

A Free, Voluntary, IRS Electronic Filing System is Essential for Low-income Taxpayers

JoAnn Goedert, Ignatian Volunteer Corp Member
Government Relations Special Contributor
May 24, 2023

Paying income taxes to the federal government has been obligatory since 1914. Even though we are all subject to federal tax laws for nearly 100 years, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has still not found a way to make it easy. The tax code is complex, and the process for calculating and filing pay payments each year can be daunting. Individuals with the means to afford the services of a tax professional, or electronic tax program, can minimize filing obstacles and maximize advantages in the tax code. But what about people of limited means? A free, voluntary, IRS electronic filing system would help all of us, but it is essential for low-income taxpayers.

The need for such a system has been recognized for decades, and its feasibility has been demonstrated by other countries, such as Australia, which have already implemented free direct e-filing for their taxpayers. In the U.S., as the gap between the wealthy and the middle-class grows, and working- and lower- class wages fail to keep up with the cost of living, the need for tax equity is more pressing. Lower wage workers, individuals with disabilities, and others living in the economic margins, deserve help navigating federal tax code and the IRS’s complicated tax forms and documentation policies.

But for many low wage workers and individuals with disabilities, limited help is available. Their options are to struggle with antiquated, handwritten tax forms that must be filled out and mailed to the IRS with paper documentation and any tax payment due; to contend with confusing and complicated requirements for limited, free IRS online filing; or to file no return because their income is so low that they owe no taxes. As a result, many individuals who can least afford to, miss out on tax benefits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and child tax credits, and they fail to document their eligibility for key federal supports like SNAP, Medicaid, and housing assistance – simply because of the intimidating tax filing maze.

What Does the Inflation Reduction Act Have to Do with Tax Fairness?

A new report gives us hope that a measure of tax fairness is coming soon, thanks in large part to a policy supported by NETWORK advocates, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). The IRA set a requirement that the IRS issue a report on the feasibility of a free, direct e-file tax return system with a focus on multi-lingual, mobile-friendly features, and safeguards for taxpayer data to Congress before May 16, 2023.

Supporters of free, voluntary, IRS electronic filing emphasize that paying taxes is an obligation, not a privilege. As Nina Olsen, head of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and a former IRS official explained, “Let’s not forget that taxes are a public good. . . not a commercial product like potato chips or an airline ticket.” Accordingly, the government should provide a reasonable filing system for all taxpayers.

Opposition to free, voluntary IRS electronic filing

There is vigorous opposition to free, voluntary IRS electronic filing from big business. Commercial tax service providers and electronic tax preparation companies fear that making the process easier for some will diminish their profits. And some conspiracy theorists have conjured up “big brother” arguments against the program, casting it as an attempt by the government to collect and misuse financial information. Others with adequate means simply prefer the status quo.

NETWORK has supported free, voluntary, IRS electronic filing initiatives for years, and we are heartened by the Biden Administration plans, at last, to propose such a system later this month.  We look forward to reviewing the Administration’s plan and working with NETWORK supporters and our partners to ensure that it provides the tax filing relief that our low-income earners need and deserve.

NETWORK Letter to President Biden on the Debt Ceiling

NETWORK Letter to President Biden on the Debt Ceiling

Mary J. Novak, Executive Director
May 15, 2023

Download the PDF of letter here

The Honorable Joseph Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden:

On behalf of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and our 100,000 justice seekers around the country, I write to commend you for your strong stance in budget discussions against cuts to programs that children, older Americans, veterans, and people struggling to afford their basic needs from harmful cuts. Your commitment to protecting policies that decrease poverty and sustain health care and food assistance for low-income Americans is greatly appreciated and urgently necessary.

Our shared Catholic faith calls us to put those struggling on the margins of society at the center of our concern. As you have noted throughout your Administration, for far too long, the wealthy and well-connected have used their power to benefit themselves, leaving our communities and families vulnerable. Your Administration has changed this trajectory by investing in building our communities anew and asking the wealthy to contribute their fair share to support the common good. This is Catholic social justice in word and in deed.

Nearly two decades of Republican leadership have added trillions of dollars to the national debt through the budget-busting Bush and Trump tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the rich and major corporations.  Now, those same leaders are using that debt ceiling as an excuse to hold the nation, hostage, by threatening a catastrophic default unless your Administration agrees to cuts to health care, food assistance, resources for cracking down on wealthy tax cheats, and more.

Your Administration is fighting against those who have foisted one of the biggest lies on the American people – that as rich people get richer, we all benefit. This well-funded effort is attacking a cornerstone principle of your agenda, one that calls for robust federal investment in people and community while asking the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.

Your Administration’s policies have resulted in historic gains in employment for marginalized communities, investment in infrastructure, and stemmed economic collapse during the COVID pandemic. This cornerstone is what House Republican leaders reject and what this debate is really about.

We urge you to hold strong on your promise to protect programs like MEDICAID, SNAP and TANF from cuts or new time limits. Your Administration has fought too hard to create a better today for our children, our veterans, and our seniors to allow millions to go hungry, to lose healthcare, or to lose income support.

As Catholics, we believe that those who have the most must contribute to the common good. It is immoral for our national debt to be shouldered by children, veterans, seniors, and those struggling to put food on the table and a roof overhead.

Our prayer is for your continued commitment to justice.

Sincerely,

Mary J. Novak
Executive Director

The GOP’s Devastating Debt Ceiling Bill

The GOP's Devastating Debt Ceiling Bill

JoAnn Goedert, Ignatian Volunteer Corp Member
Government Relations Special Contributor
May 4, 2023

Last week, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed a bill to hold the current debt ceiling crisis hostage unless the White House and Senate agree to 10 years of devastating budget reductions and major structural changes to SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid. The bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811), would cut deeply into the most basic supports for our most vulnerable individuals and families and undermine many other programs that protect their health, safety and security now and in the future.

Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) has already declared the bill dead on arrival. However, we must redouble our efforts to push back. It cannot become the basis for negotiations. The five-vote majority the House Republican Conference has does not give them the mandate from the voters to destroy President Biden’s policy agenda.

While increasing the debt ceiling for just one year, the bill demands 10 years of severe funding caps that deepen over time on non-mandatory, or discretionary, federal funding. Those caps are based on a deceptive formula that would hold total discretionary funding for the FY 2024 to FY 2022 levels — but it exempts defense spending. The GOP budget calls for $1.47 trillion in total discretionary spending in FY 2024, while insulating more than half of that amount — $885 billion in defense appropriations from any cuts, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That means that only $586 billion would be left for all other spending for health, education, housing, hunger prevention, the protection of environmental, nuclear, food and drug safety, and other key programs — a full 22% cut from current levels of $756 billion.

Overwhelmingly, the burdens of these cuts would be borne by individuals, families, and children living at or near poverty. Here are the facts of the impact of 22% reductions in some of the critical programs targeted for cuts: 

  • 1.7 million women, infants and children who would lose needed nutrition support under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
  • More than a million elderly individuals now served by Senior Healthy Meals programs like Meals on Wheels
  • Over 630,000 household who could face eviction and homelessness, including nearly 250,000 households headed by seniors or veterans, with slashed funding to Housing Choice Vouchers
  • Veterans who will face deep cuts in Veterans Health Administration outpatient care, and mental health and substance abuse treatment, resulting in 30 million fewer outpatient services.
  • Nearly 400,000 preschool children who will lose Head Start and early childcare services
  • 25 million children in schools that serve low-income students and 7.5 million students with disabilities who will suffer the effects of reduced services and staff
  • Approximately 1,150,000 households in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to who will struggle to keep their homes heated.

The GOP bill also doubles down on strict work requirements already in place for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and imposes new, onerous work requirements for Medicaid. Congress has tried this bureaucratic proposal to reduce the number of eligible Medicaid recipients. Evidence has shown that such unreasonable work requirements do not improve employment stability or living wages, and instead would hit hardest against older workers, veterans, and others with serious health conditions, caregivers for young children and the elderly, and millions of workers in the gig economy.

Under the McCarthy bill, more than 10 million people in Medicaid expansion states would be at significant risk of having their health coverage taken away because they would be subject to the new requirements and could not be excluded automatically based on existing data readily available to states.

Extending this failed policy to older adults will result in more people losing basic food assistance. About a million such individuals participated in SNAP and met the criteria in the McCarthy proposal in a typical month of 2019, which is the most recent year for which a full year of data are available.

For all of us, especially those living in already vulnerable, underserved communities, the GOP bill would eviscerate crucial health, safety, and security safeguards, both immediately and for generations to come. Just some of the protections that would be threatened by a 22% funding reduction are:

  • Rail safety inspections that could prevent further hazardous waste derailments would be cut by 30,000 fewer miles of inspected track annually
  • Suicide Lifeline service reductions that would eliminate 900,000 potentially lifesaving contacts a year.
  • Food and drug safety inspections that would lose more than $500 million and jeopardize the safety of the nation’s food and medication supplies
  • FEMA’s ability to respond to natural disasters with a decrease of $2.5 billion at the same time that climate-change related floods, tornadoes, and fires are on the increase.
  • Clean energy tax and other incentives already passed by Congress that would be repealed, only to plunge the nation into a deeper environmental crisis whose harms are already disproportionately borne by black and brown communities.

At the same time that GOP House bill demands massive cuts targeting the most vulnerable in our society, it would erode the Biden Administration’s FY 2024 deficit reductions by substantially decreasing IRS funding intended to root out tax fraud by the wealthy. McCarthy’s bill would rescind nearly all of the $80 billion in IRS funding that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster IRS enforcement capacity, rebuild the agency’s aging technology, and improve customer service. CBO has estimated that this would add $114 billion to the deficit over the next decade because the reduced funding would mean the IRS could do less to enforce our tax laws and ensure that wealthy households pay the taxes they owe.

GOP leaders further threaten the U.S. economy with proposals to continue the Trump tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations and even further reward large corporations with more and more tax windfalls. Under new House rules, tax cuts are not scored towards the deficit. Making the expiring tax cuts permanent would give a roughly $49,000 annual tax cut to the top 1 percent, while new or expanded work-reporting requirements target people with incomes below the poverty line, or about $15,000 for a single individual.

In the end, when the GOP debt ceiling bill is scrutinized carefully, what is left is nothing more than a reckless and immoral scheme that risks the nation’s economic security and the social safety net by putting impossible burdens on the backs of the individuals and families in or near poverty due to low wages, disability, and poor health, and unmet child care needs—solely to benefit the rich. The House Republican Conference’s Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 eliminated years of improvements to America’s social contract.

A Moral Budget Will Cultivate Thriving Communities

A Moral Budget Will Bring Thriving Communities

JoAnn Goedert, Ignatian Volunteer Corp Member
Government Relations Special Contributor
April 5, 2023

Our federal budget can reveal the respect and care we have for each other. As Mary Novak, NETWORK Lobby’s Executive Director, reminds us, “Budgets are moral documents; how we tax and how we spend reveals a set of moral choices.” President Biden has delivered a hopeful and optimistic vision for the country in his Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Budget. With few exceptions, President Biden’s budget embodies moral choices, and sets legislative goals, that can advance NETWORK’s Build Anew agenda. A moral budget will cultivate thriving communities nationwide. 

Build Anew can bring us to an inclusive, multiracial, and multi-faith democracy. The transformative policy agenda envisions basic economic security, education, criminal justice, health care, and more — for everyone, no exceptions. Build Anew calls for all of us to have the freedoms and resources we need to live thriving lives. This requires policies and programs that ensure the wages and work conditions that American workers need to pay their bills, enjoy family life, and retire with dignity. Too often, wealthy corporations choose not to pay workers for the true value of their work and refuse to pay our country what they truly owe in taxes. In his budget, President Biden commits to offer workers and their families the tools they need to thrive and to finally make wealthy people and corporations pay what they truly owe through taxes. 

Read on to see where NETWORK’s Build Anew policy agenda is present in President Biden’s budget to see why we are confident a moral budget will bring thriving communities

CRITICAL INVESTMENTS IN FAMILIES, CHILDREN, AND COMMUNITIES 

President Biden’s budget boldly includes critical human investments that the NETWORK community has long advocated to help individuals, families, and children achieve economic security and thrive.   

Expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) 

Millions of families were struggling to make ends meet  when the American Rescue Plan was passed and expanded the CTC, allowing millions of parents to achieve financial stability and care for their children. That provision alone cut child poverty in half in 2021, to the lowest level in history. The expanded CTC: 1) increased benefit levels, particularly for young children; 2) expanded access to reach children in families with the lowest incomes who were formerlyleft out; and 3) paid benefits in monthly installments.   

The expanded CTC has expired, and bringing it back is a moral and an economic imperative.  NETWORK is heartened to see that it is a key element in the Biden Budget.  

Permanently Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit 

The FY24 budget also calls on Congress to permanently expand the EITC for childless workers. The expanded EITC was part of the American Rescue Plan and has expired. This provision helped younger workers and older workers without children and who did not previously qualify for the credit to emerge from poverty. The expansions ensured no low-wage workers were taxed into poverty. Permanently expanding the EITC and the improvements in the Child Tax Credit are two priorities this year.  

Paid Family and Sick Leave 

President Biden’s budget proposes a national paid family and medical leave program that would at last provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave for workers.  The budget also calls on Congress to pass legislation requiring employers to provide seven paid sick days to all workers. 

IMPROVED ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

The president’s budget includes a range of proposals to improve access to high-quality, affordable health care, some of which have been integral elements of the Build Anew agenda:

Funding to Improve Black Maternal Health

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, and rates are disproportionately high for Black women. A Black maternal health crisis has left black women three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women. It doesn’t have to be this way–more than half of these deaths are preventable! We know what we need to do so that more Black mothers and their babies can thrive. The 2021 Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act offered a comprehensive roadmap for addressing the racial inequities that underlie this health crisis. NETWORK lobbied vigorously for this bill, but it failed to pass in the last Congress. We are pleased to see that the president’s FY24 budget includes $471 million to expand maternal health initiatives and requires all states to provide continuous Medicaid coverage for 12 months postpartum, eliminating gaps in health insurance at a critical time.

Permanent Affordable Care Act (ACA) Premium Reductions and Expansion to Medicaid

The budget builds on the remarkable success of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), by making permanent the average $800 per year premium cuts through expanded premium tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act extended. It also provides Medicaid-like coverage to individuals in states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion under the ACA, paired with financial incentives to ensure states maintain their existing expansions.

The FY24 budget invests $150 billion over 10 years to improve and expand Medicaid’s home and community-based services which would allow older Americans and individuals with disabilities to remain in their homes and stay active in their communities as well as improve the quality of jobs for home care workers.

The budget also shores up funding for community health centers—which provide comprehensive services regardless of ability to pay, and which serve one in three people living in poverty and one in five rural residents.

Reduced Prescription Drug Costs

The budget calls for strengthening the newly established drug negotiation power in Medicare by extending it to more drugs and bringing drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch.  And there’s a proposal to limit Medicare Part D cost-sharing for high-value generic drugs used for certain chronic conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol to no more than $2.

Saving Medicare for the Future

President Biden’s budget will ensure Medicare is fully funded until at least 2050. It does this by increasing the Medicare tax rate on investment income above $400,000 to 5% from 3.8%, by closing a tax loophole that lets some wealthy business owners avoid this tax, and by expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices. Not a penny in benefits will be cut.

EXPANDED ACCESS TO FOOD, HOUSING, AND EDUCATION FOR MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES

The Build Anew agenda recognizes that, before marginalized individuals, families and communities can thrive, adequate food, housing, and educational opportunities are essential. The FY24 budget shares that recognition and proposes important steps to expand access in these critical areas:

Full Funding of Maternal and Child Nutrition Programs

The Biden Budget includes $6.3 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and provides over $15 billion for States and local schools to expand free school meals to an additional 9 million children.

Housing

The Budget includes $59 billion in mandatory funding and tax incentives to incentivize local governments to address the critical shortage of affordable housing in communities throughout the country. By expanding the supply of housing, the budget would help curb cost growth across the broader housing market.

In the budget, the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program expands the current capacity of 2.3 million low-income families with rental assistance to obtain housing in the private market. The budget provides $32.7 billion to maintain services for all currently assisted families and expand assistance to an additional 50,000 households, particularly those who are experiencing homelessness or fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, or other forms of gender-based violence.

Protecting Foster Care Kids and Veterans

To further ensure that more households have access to safe and affordable housing, the budget includes mandatory funding to support two populations that are particularly vulnerable to homelessness—youth aging out of foster care and extremely low-income (ELI) veterans. The budget provides $9 billion to establish a housing voucher program for the  20,000 youth aging out of foster care annually and $13 billion to incrementally expand rental assistance for 450,000 ELI veteran families, paving a path to guaranteed assistance for all who have served the Nation and are in need.

Improved Access to Education for Low Income Students

The budget increases Title I funding to schools in low-income communities by $2.2 billion and increases Pell Grants by $500. It also offers funding to expand free community college and two years of subsidized tuition to low- and middle-income students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority-serving institutions.

Funding for Workforce Training for Good Jobs

The Biden budget proposes an investment of over $600 million in training programs, especially for workers of color, women, and those living in rural areas, targeted at good-paying jobs in high demand industries and professions.

PROTECTING DEMOCRACY AND THE FREEDOM TO VOTE

As NETWORK advocates for the common good, we know that economics alone will not assure that communities, families, and children can flourish. At the foundation of the Build Anew Agenda is the understanding that all of us, regardless of our race or class, must have a secure right to vote and to be safe in our homes and communities, and to thrive with dignity.

Democracy

The assault on our democracy continues with former President Trump’s “Big Lie” about 2020 election results continuing to manifest itself in the degradation of confidence in and security of our elections processes. NETWORK is pleased to see that the budget proposes $5 billion in new election administration and Civil Rights Division oversight funding to be allocated over 10 years. This investment would assure that poll workers and elections authorities have the proper resources to aid in strengthening election integrity and security until Congress can pass robust voting rights and election security legislations, like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Criminal Justice Advancement

Unfortunately, the budget seeks to revive ineffective 1990s policies by calling for the funding of 100,000 new police officers among other unbridled funding without specific accountability measures. Yet, we are thankful for the $5 billion over 10 years for community violence interventions, $409 billion allotted for key investments furthering First Step Act implementation, and the Board of Prisons and Department of Labor collaboration for training and other programs for citizens returning from federal prisons. Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities across our country continue to be plagued by police abuse and violence. Too often, interactions with law enforcement result in harm or death–often when the victim is unarmed or running away. The deaths of George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Tyre Nichols, Breonna Taylor and many others murder because of racial violence in God’s beloved community, must be mitigated by evidence-informed interventions to keep all people safe and reduce our reliance on the criminal-legal system. Data-driven community policing and safety solutions must be codified into federal law by Congress.

MAKING THE WEALTHY PAY WHAT THEY OWE

All of us agree that contributions made into our shared economy should be equitable. For too long, politicians have allowed wealthy people and businesses to pay less than what they owe in taxes, and at the same time, they’ve shamed people working low wage jobs for being a drain on the United States. When billionaires enjoy relatively no tax burden, but middle-class and working-class Americans pay what they owe into our shared economy, that is the true drain on taxpayers – that is economic injustice!

The Biden budget includes calls for the wealthiest U.S. individuals and corporations to finally pay their fair share, while ensuring that no on making less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes. In a series of proposals, the budget would institute a minimum tax on billionaires, raise the corporate tax rate and end offshore tax breaks, repeal the Trump tax cuts that provides windfalls to the top one percent, and cut wasteful federal spending on Big Oil, Big Pharma and other wealthy special interests.  This stands in sharp contrast to MAGA Republicans in the House and Senate that have proposed to slap a 30% national sales tax on everything Americans buy, from groceries to healthcare to cars.

Biden’s budget also prioritizes tax enforcement resources to keep watch on rich and corporate tax cheats. To be clear, those who shirk their responsibility to our shared economy by evading hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes they owe every year. Republicans have voted to slash that funding to give rich tax cheaters a free ride. The resulting loss of revenue will actually increase the deficit by more than $100 billion.

NETWORK CAUTIONS AGAINST UNWARRANTED SPENDING

Unfortunately, the FY24 budget proposes increases in wasteful military spending, as well as additional funding on immigration enforcement, expanding militarization of the border that offers no solution to the situation there and can only compound the suffering of migrants seeking a safer, better life in the U.S.

Such measures fly in the face of both the Biden Administration stated vision for our country and NETWORK’s Build Anew agenda.

THE OPPOSITION TO BIDEN’S BUDGET  

Following President Biden’s State of the Union speech in February 2023, the House Budget Committee was quick to announce a series of drastic cuts to fundamental economic security programs that provide a lifeline for our families, children, and marginalized communities.  The GOP proposal would target basic food assistance, including SNAP, affordable health care, student loans, migrant legal services, and projects that protect the environment and reduce the impact of climate change. In the name of deficit reduction, these proposals may well make the thriving lives that Build Anew calls for an impossibility.

Not surprisingly, the MAGA Republicans reacted to the Biden budget with words of contempt, a vow to prevent its enactment, and redoubled calls for deep cuts to essential poverty prevention programs and environmental protections.  At the same time, they have begun maneuvers to continue the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. 

Friends, the choice is clear for justice-seekers: we must act to reject House MAGA Republican initiatives that will deprive people of the ability to earn a wage that supports a thriving life, ensures health care that is affordable and accessible, and allows families to climb out of poverty.

We are working for a country where children have enough food to eat, our homes are , and everyone can afford life-saving prescriptions.

We know what our communities need to thrive, and we have the faith and love to advocate for our neighbors, and we have the strength to advocate for what we need, because we are seeking justice together!NETWORK staff and supporters have helped families thrive before by advocating for the expanded CTC and access to affordable housing, food, and other initiatives to advance the Build Anew agenda. We must work together again, through your advocacy and our lobbying, so that children, and their parents, guardians, and communities have the support they need.

Join the Thriving Communities

 

 

 

Congress Must Pass a Fully Refundable Child Tax Credit Before the New Year

Congress Must Pass a Fully Refundable Child Tax Credit Before the New Year

Laura Peralta-Schulte, Senior Director of Public Policy and Government Relations
November 16, 2022

As the 117th Congress nears the end of its session, lawmakers are considering a short-term tax extender package to address expiring corporate tax breaks. NETWORK and our faith-based and secular partners believe it is poor policy, and morally repugnant, to extend tax breaks for well-heeled corporations without also enacting robust expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Congress must pass a fully refundable, monthly Child Tax Credit before the New Year.

Trickle-down policies favored by some politicians don’t work to provide low-income families the resources they need to live a dignified life.  In fact, it leads to what Pope Francis has called the “idolatry of money” created by a culture of indifference to the excluded. Lawmakers have already proven that they can take action to substantially reduce child poverty and they must do again.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Child Tax Credit in December of 2021 lapsed in January 2022. The ARP Child Tax Credit significantly reduced child poverty to its lowest level ever. In the months since it ended, NETWORK and our partners have lobbied for legislation that reinstates a fully refundable, monthly Child Tax Credit. Child poverty, as measured by the supplemental poverty measure (SPM), declined to a historically low level of 5.2 percent in 2021—down from 9.7 percent in 2020—according to recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This is powerful testimony to the effectiveness of the expanded Child Tax Credit.

The success of the 2021 expansion showed us that high child poverty rates are a policy choice, not an inevitability. In the congressional lame duck session, policymakers will have the opportunity once again to expand the Child Tax Credit, so that more families get help they need to afford the basics. ~ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

Indeed, the expanded CTC provided a lifeline for families as the economy emerged from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Census Bureau surveys found that 91 percent of low-income families—those with incomes below $35,000—used their monthly CTC payments to cover the cost of basic necessities such as food, housing, utilities, clothing, and education to ensure that their children had healthier, stable environments.

The expanded CTC was also responsible for substantial reductions in Black and Hispanic child poverty, reducing the child poverty rate for both demographic groups by 6.3 percentage points. This translates to 716,000 fewer Black children and 1.2 million fewer Hispanic children in poverty, substantially narrowing persistent racial poverty gaps.

More action for the Common Good, Less partisan behavior  

Why would lawmakers refuse to take steps toward ending child poverty with a robust expansion of the CTC when it has a proven track record of success? There should be no partisan debate about the merits of feeding hungry children or keeping families warm in the winter. Why are Republican legislators so keen to extend tax provisions for big business, but cold to the idea of expanding the child tax credit so all families get the credit regardless of income?

Friends, we must let Congress know that serving the common good is more worthy than being a master to corporate greed. With your advocacy,  we can influence Congress to pass a fully refundable, monthly Child Tax Credit. Without our collective moral push, Congress may not prioritize children and families in need before this session ends.

While a few Senate Republicans have voiced support for improving the Child Tax Credit to help some low-income families, none are supportive of making the credit fully refundable. House Republicans launched an attack on the credit before the mid-term elections. They, and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, criticized the ARP Child Tax Credit as being too generous and made false claims that the credit reduced incentives to work. They are wrong! Data conclusively shows that the CTC did not precipitate workforce reductions. Ironically, many parents who thrived in the workforce when the CTC was in place have left jobs since it expired. Without the Child Tax Credit, they couldn’t afford the cost of child care and other essentials.

Congress Must Pass a Fully Refundable Child Tax Credit Before the New Year  

Since checks to the low-income families ended in December of 2021, we have lost ground in the fight to end child poverty. A new study of families whose CTC payments ended on January 15, 2022 published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that food insufficiency increased by approximately 25 percent among families with children from January 2022 to July 2022. This finding is in stark contrast to JAMA’s previous study  that showed a 26% decrease in food insufficiency among families with children in 2021 following implementation of the monthly CTC payments.

It is time to step up our advocacy efforts. We must remind our lawmakers that the choice this December is clear–invest in our most vulnerable families to help end child poverty. Perhaps with your advocacy and NETWORK’s lobbying, we can pressure lawmakers to prioritize ending  child poverty. And remind them of the Christmas story: a child born to young parents struggling in poverty and left out in the cold.

Write a Child Tax Credit Letter to the Editor

Write a Letter to the Editor Supporting the Child Tax Credit

Letters to the editor (LTEs) are a powerful advocacy tool. They are among the most widely read sections of newspapers and magazines and are closely monitored by Members of Congress to find out what their voters are thinking. When LTEs are strategically coordinated and published, they can strengthen the impression of widespread support or opposition to an issue or piece of legislation. Often, they can influence editorial writers to take a stand or influence other members of the media to probe an issue more deeply. While they start out as one voice, LTEs can build a movement!

Your LTE about the Child Tax Credit is incredibly timely, as we are calling on Congress to extend the expanded Child Tax Credit before the end of the year! Also, your letter is contributing to nation-wide, targeted, multi-tactic strategy to make sure that 19 million children and their families can receive the full Child Tax Credit!

Tips for Powerful LTEs

Follow guidelines of the publications to ensure you have the correct length, style, and format. Remember that most publications prefer letters to be 250 words or less.

  • Timeliness is key. Many newspapers publish letters responding to articles, editorials, or other letters the day after they appear.
  • Frame your letter in relation to a recent news item or topic. A letter is more likely to be published when it is written in response to something that has appeared in the publication.
  • Use local, specific information whenever possible. To find your state specific data, please go to https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/year-end-tax-policy-priority-expand-the-child-tax-credit-for-the-19-million 
  • Be aware of your audience: use talking points that will appeal to the readers, avoid jargon and abbreviations, and do not engage in personal attacks.
  • Include your credentials
  • If you are using a sample letter from an organization, do not copy talking points verbatim. Papers can search for canned content after it is published one time.

1. Start with your qualifications.

“As a Catholic who is dedicated to living out the social mission of my Church, I am calling upon Senator Cornyn to support an expanded, fully refundable, monthly Child Tax Credit (CTC).”

2. Tell them what you think!

“It is a moral imperative to end child poverty and hunger, and Congress has a tool do just that with the CTC. This program has a proven, transformative impact on the lives of children and families. We know that the expanded CTC led to historic reductions in child poverty, especially for Black and Latino children. However, under current law, there are over 2.1 million children—including over 1.7 million Latino and Black children–in Texas alone who are excluded from the full CTC because their families’ incomes are too low. It is not only just but common sense to make the full CTC available to these families!”

3. Bring it together with a legislative ask.

“I call on Senator Cornyn to support an expanded, fully refundable, monthly Child Tax Credit. All of Texas’ children, from the Panhandle to Dallas to the Gulf Coast, deserve to live healthy and productive lives, and the Child Tax Credit is important way to support children and families.”

Find submission guidelines on your local paper’s website and send.
  • Found on the same page where you found length rules.
  • Submission will either be to an email address or online form.
Quick Tips:
  • You can write to multiple local papers.
  • It helps to tie your LTE into a recent story run by the paper.
  • Wait three weeks before repeating.

For additional information about writing and submitting a letter to the editor, watch this training from former NETWORK Press Secretary Lee Morrow: