A couple of weeks ago, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) endorsed an increase in child tax credits to a maximum of $5,000 per child, declaring that “President Trump has been on record for a long time, supporting a bigger child tax credit.”
Although the credit was originally designed to reduce child poverty, and currently phases out for married couples earning more than $400,000, Vance wants the federal government to extend it to all eligible parents, including millionaires and billionaires.
Trump has not, in fact, been a visible and vocal advocate of bigger child tax credits. More often than not, congressional Republicans have opposed such increases, whereas Democrats have made sizable child tax credits a high priority.
The Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 — which was not supported by any Democrats in Congress — cut individual, corporate and estate taxes, and increased the maximum child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 for each child under age 17. Families with combined incomes of $400,000 became eligible for the benefit, up from $150,000. Very poor families, for whom the maximum child tax credit refund exceeded the taxes owed, could not receive more than $1,400 per child. And part of the child tax credit increase was offset by a repeal of exemptions for dependents.
As he signed his tax cut bill at the White House, Trump lavished praise on what he deemed, falsely, were “the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country,” and referred to “the doubling of the child tax credit.” I have found no evidence that he mentioned child tax credits before or after that.
The Trump administration child tax credit had a minimal impact on child poverty. Between 2018 and 2019, the rate decreased by 1.8 points, from 16.2 percent to 14.4 percent, due mostly to robust economic growth. Between 2019 and 2020, child poverty bounced back to 16.1 percent, due mostly to pandemic-related economic stagnation.
The Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan of 2021 — which was not supported by any Republicans in Congress — allocated funds for COVID vaccines, states and localities, small businesses, schools and unemployed people, and temporarily boosted the child tax credit to as much as $3,000 for each child over age six and $3,600 for older children, with monthly payments for six months in 2021 and a lump sum in the spring of 2022. The credit was also made available to low income families regardless of their income or tax liability. Vice President Kamala Harris called the child tax credit expansion “one of the most impactful parts of the American Rescue Plan.”
She was right. The credit played a pivotal role in a historic decline of child poverty in the U.S. The rate dropped to 5.2 percent, with “only” 3.8 million children living in poverty.
Nonetheless, when the child tax credit disbursements ceased in 2022, neither former president Trump nor congressional Republicans supported reauthorizing it as part of Biden’s Build Back Better initiative or as a stand-alone bill. The rate of child poverty shot up by 139 percent, pushing the number of children living below the federal poverty line to 9 million.
In the summer of 2022, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) proposed a child allowance bill, but the legislation was supported by only two of his GOP colleagues, and Democrats refused to go along with the $10,000 per year income threshold it set.
In 2023, a few Republican senators indicated some interest in a modest expansion of child tax credits from the 2017 levels to which they had returned, in exchange for rolling back several Biden-era corporate tax hikes. Negotiations dragged on for months but ultimately went nowhere. Passing a bill “that makes the president [Biden] look good,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) explained, “mailing out checks before the election, means he could be reelected.”
This month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for a vote on expanding child tax credits. All but three Republicans voted no. Vance — whose claim that Harris “is calling for an end to the child tax credit” was deemed “not only wrong, but ludicrous” by Politifact — played hooky. And the proposal fell far short of the 60 votes it needed to overcome the GOP filibuster.
“President Trump will consider a significant expansion of the child tax credit that applies to American families,” his campaign spokesman recently announced. “President Trump respects and listens to his running mate, Senator Vance.”
The former president, who is unlikely to give a thumbs up to Vance’s proposal of a higher tax rate for childless adults, may well endorse his running mate’s child tax credit plan. After all, Trump seems to have a special fondness for legislation giving millionaires and billionaires money they do not need. As Harris has erased his lead in battleground states, he may also welcome an opportunity to pick up a few votes by feigning a commitment to help low-income families struggling to provide a healthy, prosperous future for their children.
This week, Harris proposed a $6,000 child tax credit for every newborn baby and a return to the 2021 $3,600 maximum payment for eligible families.
Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.
