Friday, writing for Mother Jones, Erika Eichelberger, explained the inherent unfairness of the bill the conservatives passed, 237-173.
The bill, she wrote, "changes the way the federal child tax credit works by raising the eligibility cap for married couples. At the same time, the legislation would allow a 2009 child tax credit increase for low-income families to expire at the end of 2017. Here's how that would play out in the coming years. A married couple with two children that bring in $160,000 a year would get a new annual tax cut of $2,200, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). A single mother with two kids who makes $14,500 a year would lose $1,725 annually.
The big winners in this bill, would be the more-affluent families who would become newly eligible for the [child tax credit], tax experts at the CBPP noted Tuesday. "The losers would be millions of low-income families who are doing exactly what policymakers often say they want these people to do-- working, even at low-wage jobs."
The 2009 law that increased the child tax credit for poor families did so by lowering the income level required for a partial credit to $3,000 and reducing the annual income required for a full credit to $16,333. If it expires, 6 million children and roughly 400,000 veterans and military families would lose all or part of their child tax credit. But that is what cionservatives seem to want, ALL wealth going to the fewest Americans.
The 5 Republicans who voted with the Democrats against this monstrosity of unfairness were mainstream conservatives Jeff Denham (CA), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Walter Jones (NC), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), and David Valadao (CA).
And these were the 25 pitiful excuses for Democrats who again crossed the aisle to join Republicans in yet another vote against working families:
• Ron Barber (Blue Dog/New Dem-AZ) (Way to honor Ms. Giffords)
• John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA)
• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)
• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA)
• Bruce Braley (cowardly Senate candidate-IA)
• Julia Brownley (CA)
• Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)
• Bill Enyart (IL)
• Pete Gallego (Blue Dog/New Dem-TX)
• John Garamendi (CA)
• Joe Garcia (New Dem-FL)
• Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH)
• Dave Loebsack (IA)
• Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY)
• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC)
• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Gary Peters (New Dem-MI)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV)
• Raul Ruiz (CA)
• Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL)
• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog/New Dem-AZ)
Every Republican, except the 5 who crossed the aisle, plus these 25 faithless Democrats, are waging a class war against most Americans.
The median household income in this country is $50,502.
150 million American families live in households where the annual income is less than $50,000 and only 1.3 million live in households with annual incomes above $200,000.
These conservative congress members think their job is to protect that 1.3 million and keep the windows of opportunity bolted to the children of the less well-off.
