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October 20, 2021 11:34 AM UTC

Manchin Takes Aim At Bennet's Prized Child Tax Credit

  • 9 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-ish).

As Pat Poblete of the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog reports–while Colorado’s junior Sen. John Hickenlooper reckons with moderate obstinate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia’s deal-killing opposition to the carbon tax Hickenlooper has championed since his 2019 presidential run, Colorado’s other U.S. Senator Michael Bennet is confronted with a threat to the size and scope of his overwhelmingly popular Child Tax Credit from the same Sen. Manchin:

The number of Colorado parents eligible to receive the federal Child Tax Credit could be cut by nearly 70% if congressional Democrats and the Biden administration cave to the demands of one of their Democratic colleagues, according to a new report.

The vast federal program – which sends monthly payments to parents of children 17 years old and younger – has been a top policy priority of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet since the middle of the last decade and was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March as part of a pandemic response package…

Researchers at the self-proclaimed “moderate” Niskanen Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, on Tuesday released estimates based off of Axios’ report showing if Manchin got his way, some 37.4 million children across the country would lose out on federal aid.

And that’s not all:

Colorado would be particularly hard hit based on the projections put together by the Niskanen Center’s Robert Orr and Samuel Hammond. Based on the duo’s projections, roughly 320,000 Colorado kids would be eligible for the credit under Manchin’s proposal, down 67.9% from the roughly 1.1 million currently eligible children.

Sen. Bennet’s goal is to see the Child Tax Credit in its current form extended for a further five years–enough time for the credit to make measurable progress toward the goal of cutting child poverty in half throughout the United States. But because of the perfectly divided 50/50 U.S. Senate, Sen. Manchin now wields a degree of influence over the process that has galled and outraged Democrats across the nation. Manchin, the only Democratic representative left representing a state whose failed economy has embittered a white working-class population, seems to be taking pleasure in his dream-crushing role as he demands a smaller final package for the politically self-serving sake of being smaller.

With the signature priorities of both of Colorado’s U.S. Senators now at Joe Manchin’s mercy, the one thing we say for certain is that both Hickenlooper and Bennet are as frustrated as everyone else over the present state of affairs. What’s happening right now is not why either of them were elected to the U.S. Senate, and it’s not their fault. We can only hope that when the dust settles on a final product, some of the good stuff Colorado’s U.S. Senators have fought for is still in there.

In the long run, the only cure is a majority with a margin that prevents any one Senator from playing God.

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9 thoughts on “Manchin Takes Aim At Bennet’s Prized Child Tax Credit”

  1. In the long run, there could also be another cure … a majority AND a few from the minority party who are willing to cooperate to pass good policy. 

    I'm not certain which is more likely.  Both seem far fetched in the current environment.

  2. When the government subsidizes goods and services, the price always, always, always goes up, requiring an increase in the subsidy, resulting in increased prices, requiring an increase in the subsidy, resulting in increased prices, requiring an increase in the subsidy, resulting in increased prices, requiring and increase in the subsidy……………………

    2. That’s just not true. There are at last 10 government-subsidized programs that are highly successful at basic social goods; feeding hungry students, housing poor people, making health care accessible to all who need it, etc.

      I know that as a dyed in the wool Republican, you don’t accept that social goods are worth subsidizing: let the kids starve. Throw those disabled and elderly people out on the street. If you get too sick to work, die quickly. 

      I haven’t studied all of them, but in general, these seem to stimulate the economy as well as providing social goods. Farmers depend on the SNAP markets. ACA has kept health care costs from increasing as much as they were. 
      Housing subsidies have not held housing costs down at all; but there are other influencing factors, including the intense profiteering of giant realtor companies. 

      Your own industry has and will benefit more from road improvements in the BBB and bipartisan infrastructure bills. There are more regulations you probably don’t like, but also $1 Bn in truck parking, etc. 

      We’ll see how much you’re still complaining about government subsidies when they help your own bottom line.
       

  3. If Dems can only find one seat they can flip, they can moot Republican-lite Manchin's obstructionism; two and Sinema becomes irrelevant, too. So where are they? Who's campaign can we all support to take their decisive votes away from them 

      1. Unfortunately, that is true. Dems dodged a couple of bullets in NH and VT when Chris Sununu and Phil Scott decided it wouldn't be much fun sitting between a bunch of assholes like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

        But Ralph Warnock has an uphill fight on his hands as does Mark Kelly. (Kelly's fight is slightly less uphill.) 

        Best chance for the Dems to keep the 50 seats we currently have:  Trump decides to launch one of his Boomerang Jihads attacking fellow Republicans who do not want to relitigate the 2020 election in 2022 and suppressing GOP voter turnout like he did in the Georgia runoff last January.

        Next best chance is that the GOP runs a full slate of nut jobs (e.g., Eric Grittens or one of the gun-toting McCloskeys in MO, J.D. Vance or Josh Mandel in OH, and Ron Johnson in WI). The Dems lost a really nice opportunity when Sean Parnell dropped out in PA. Maybe "Chem Trails" Kelly Ward or Sheriff Joe Arpaio will give it another go in AZ.

         

        1. R & R: Dems also will need better messaging. They still don’t have effective answers to the “dog whistle” messages of “defund the police,” “critical race theory,” “socialism,” and the new one, used by Youngkin in Virginia, a stronger focus on parents for school curricula.

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