Harris pushes child tax credit expansion at rally days after Vance makes similar proposal

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 16, 2024 / 18:02 pm

Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to increase the child tax credit for parents and establish a newborn tax credit of up to $6,000 if elected president in 2024 — just days after former President Donald Trump’s running mate J.D Vance similarly suggested a child tax credit expansion.

On Friday, Harris’ campaign announced her plan to bring back the $3,600 per child tax credit that was temporarily offered for eligible parents in the 2021 tax year. The campaign said the credit will be available to the “middle class” and “the most hard-pressed working families with children.”

At a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon, Harris said the 2021 rules ensured “millions of Americans with children got to keep more of their hard-earned income.” 

“We know this works and has an impact on so many issues, including child poverty,” she added. 

The campaign also promised to support a newborn tax credit of up to $6,000 per year, which would be available to parents in the first year of the child’s life for middle-income and low-income families.

“That is a vital, vital year of critical development of a child,” Harris said at the rally. “And the costs can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else.”

Under current law, the child tax credit is $2,000 per child and there are no additional tax credits for the first year of the child’s life.

John White, professor emeritus of politics at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that Harris’ proposal emphasizes “social justice issues and care for children after they have been born,” which “fits with Catholic social justice teachings and the importance of a caring, nurturing society.”

“What happens after birth is just as important as what precedes it,” White said. “Catholic teaching is not a one-size-fits-all agenda but needs to be understood in its richness and fullness. No candidate will perfectly conform to Catholic teaching. Catholics should endorse what they see as consistent with Church teachings and have their voices heard in the public square.”

An expansion of the child tax credit also has support from Kristen Day, the executive director of Democrats for Life of America — an advocacy group that encourages Democrats to support pro-life policies. 

“We support it,” Day told CNA, but she added: “I think the [Biden-Harris] administration has a lot more to do to address the full situation for pregnant women.”

Day said Democrats for Life has “been pushing for the child tax credit to be expanded and extended” for years but warned that the Harris campaign has “not [been] supporting pregnant women to have the opportunity to have babies” and has instead been “very pro-abortion.”

She said she is also concerned about efforts from Harris and many other Democrats backing policies that seek to discredit or restrict pro-life pregnancy resource centers, which offer life-affirming pregnancy care to women.

Democrats in several other states have targeted pro-life pregnancy centers, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, who accused several centers of misleading clients and filed a lawsuit against them. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health launched a website and media campaign to discourage women from accessing life-affirming pregnancy care.

As attorney general of California, Harris supported legislation that forced those centers to provide clients with information about abortion, which the Supreme Court struck down because it compelled speech.

Day said Democrats should “stop demonizing pregnancy resource centers,” which she said “should have bipartisan support.” She encouraged Democrats to focus on “reducing abortion” with policies that help pregnant women continue their pregnancies rather than on “abortion expansion.”

“The position from the Biden administration and Harris on this issue is really the focus on abortion and not on women — not on health care for women and not on pregnancy and allowing women to have the choice to have a baby,” Day said.

Harris plan comes days after Vance’s

Harris’ announcement comes less than a week after Vance suggested raising the child tax credit to $5,000 per child annually in an Aug. 11 interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” In the interview, Vance said, “President Trump has been on the record for a long time supporting a bigger child tax credit, and I think you want it to apply to all American families.”

Michael New, a professor of social research at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that Harris’ embrace of expanding the child tax credit “is another example of her copying a popular policy proposal from the Trump campaign” and referenced Harris’ proposal to end taxes on tips shortly after the Trump campaign backed that policy.

New said he supports expanding the child tax credit, adding that “the tax code should be pro-family and we should find ways to assist families that wish to have children.” However, he said “these policies are only effective at the margins” in promoting life and discouraging abortions.

“Efforts in countries like Hungary and Poland to use various sorts of tax credits and subsidies to encourage larger families have only had marginal success,” New said. “Furthermore, while many women who seek abortions cite economic pressures, only a relatively small percentage of women seeking abortions say that finances were the only reason for obtaining abortion.”