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Names can be a form of propaganda, as the journalist Jonathan Ireland pointed out recently. This is most true when they are intended not to describe something but to "influence ... how it is perceived." A case in point is the Democrats' child "tax credit" proposed in the cheerfully titled Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, up for a Senate vote this Thursday—which isn't a tax credit and doesn't offer relief for working families.
First, the most fundamental point: The Democrats' proposal would do next to nothing for the vast majority of Americans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has touted the bill as "good for kids ... and good for American families." But under its child "tax credit" provision, more than nine in 10 families would actually be worse off financially than they were in 2017.
The reason for this is simple—inflation. In 2017, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and I fought against our own party to double the existing child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000. The Internal Revenue Service confirmed that this cut taxes for millions of Americans in every income bracket, except for the very top. Since then, however, runaway spending by the Biden-Harris Administration has slashed roughly 20 percent of the value of $2,000, which means the average family's taxes have effectively increased. The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act would lock that increase into law—hardly a good deal for parents struggling to get by.
Next, it is important to recognize that the Democrats' proposed child "tax credit" is really nothing of the kind. To describe it as such is, to borrow some favorite Democrat terms, misinformation at best, disinformation at worst.
A tax credit, by definition, is "a provision that reduces a taxpayer's final tax bill, dollar-for-dollar." Before 2017, the child tax credit could not exceed a family's income tax liability. Senator Lee and I made the credit more generous by including payroll tax liability, but we kept the provision tied to the taxes families pay. The Democrats' proposal, in contrast, would allow families to receive government payments based on their previous year's tax filings (the "look back" option) and phase in additional payments at rates that far exceed their tax liability. In other words, it would turn a genuine tax credit into welfare.
Pointing this out isn't just semantics—it's an indictment of the Democrats' years-long effort to hijack crucial pro-family policies for the purpose of welfare expansions. That effort, if successful, would be disastrous for the country.
Remember, the child tax credit was first created as part of a broader congressional strategy to move America away from cash welfare—it was an integral piece of a reform package that reduced child poverty by 25 percent.
Reversing that success would be tragic.
None of this is to say Congress shouldn't take action. But we should vote on legislation that would offer actual tax relief to working families, not one of Chuck Schumer's show votes only meant to boost the Democrats' talking points this summer.
Come 2025, we should dramatically increase the size of the tax credit to $3,500 ($4,500 for young children). Meanwhile, we need to fight against the Orwellian propaganda peddled by the Democrats and parroted by the liberal media.
Marco Rubio, a Republican, is the senior U.S. senator from Florida.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
