Done and Undone
The biggest news in the final days of this Congress was the financial crisis and the bailout legislation attempting to respond to it.
We should take note of some items particularly important to low- and moderate-income people, and to all working Americans.
One piece of good news:
The tax legislation Congress acted on along with the bailout proposal DID include an expansion of the Child Tax Credit that will make the credit newly available to the families of 3 million poor children, and increase the credit available to the families of 10 million more. The current improvement is only temporary – we will need to ensure that it continues in future years, and it leaves ahead the task of making sure all children are eligible for the credit. But it is nonetheless a positive step in the fight against poverty.
Major tasks left undone:
Despite increasing rates of unemployment and underemployment, and the fact that some 800,000 people ran out of unemployment benefits this weekend, Congress did NOT act to extend unemployment benefits.
Despite high prices for food, gas, and other basics compounding the strains of increasing unemployment (and fewer hours of work for people with jobs), Congress did NOT act on stimulus proposals, such as increasing heating assistance and food stamps, or more Medicaid support for States, that would have put dollars in the hands of hard-pressed families, and provided countercyclical support for the economy as a whole. Nor did they act on proposals that would help create jobs for the future, such as investing in green infrastructure.
As for the bailout bill itself, it is enormously disappointing that it lacks the provisions necessary to deal seriously with the fundamental problem: rewriting mortgages in a way that helps struggling homeowners stay in their homes—and continue to pay their loans. Lower income people have been particularly hard hit by abusive predatory loans, and are more likely to have all of their savings invested in their homes, so they are especially vulnerable in this crisis.
Congress—the current Administration, and the next one—need to get back to work on policies that will increase prosperity and cut poverty.
Read more about the Child Tax Credit here.
Read more about the National Employment Law Project’s unemployment work here.
Read more about ACORN’s work to fight predatory lending here.
Tags: Federal
