As a working mom, I know firsthand how hard the pandemic has been for families in Georgia. Parents have had to work overtime these past sixteen months managing virtual school and their own jobs, all while trying to keep their families safe and healthy. I’ve heard so many stories from my constituents about the stress they have been under as they juggle paying rent, finding child care, and maintaining a sense of normalcy for our children. Thankfully, President Biden and Democrats are delivering crucial financial relief to help Georgia families get back on their feet.
This week, the Biden-Harris administration’s second monthly child tax credit hit Georgia families’ bank accounts. Thanks to President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and Democrats in Congress, millions across the state are feeling the impact of these tax cuts – 91% of families with children in Georgia are receiving these monthly tax cuts of up to $1,600 per child total through December. The families of more than 2.2 million children in Georgia are now able to get that little bit of extra relief to get them through the month.
This program is one of the largest-ever single-year tax cuts for families with children in history, putting it among the most significant anti-poverty efforts this country has ever seen. Growing up in poverty, I intimately knew the difference that every cent made when it came to keeping the lights on or filling up the fridge. I saw the difficult choices that had to be made in order to keep my family afloat. The American Rescue Plan’s child tax credit program is literally life-changing for families struggling to make ends meet.
The impacts that these tax cuts have already had across the country are extraordinary – child hunger has dropped 24 percent nationwide since the distribution of the first child tax cut in July. Across the country, this tax cut will benefit 66 million kids, lift 11 million people out of poverty, and cut child poverty nearly in half. In Georgia alone, our state’s overall child poverty rate will be reduced from 13.6% to 5.9%. That’s about 171,000 Georgia children who will no longer have to wonder whether there will be food on the table when they get home or whether the lights will stay on. Programs like the child tax credit are government working at its best to lift up the most vulnerable among us and give every child the opportunity to thrive.
I’ve seen how this is changing the lives of families across Georgia. Just this week, I met a mother of two from Atlanta who shared how she was on her last leg trying to financially support her family through the pandemic. She was brought to tears when she told me how much the payments from the child tax credit have helped her provide for her kids and keep her family’s heads above water. This is why elections matter. Having President Biden and Democrats in charge means real people’s lives being made better every single day.
Despite the life-changing benefits of child tax credits for working families across the state, every Georgia Republican running for office in 2022 – from Brian Kemp to the entire GOP Senate field – shamefully opposed these critical tax cuts. In the midst of a once-in-a-generation pandemic, Republicans have refused time and again to set aside partisanship to help working- and middle-class Georgians. While Republicans’ economic agenda only includes cutting taxes for the richest Americans, the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats are building the economy from the bottom-up and the middle-out, and it’s working.
Georgia helped deliver the White House and Congress for Democrats, and now Democrats are delivering for Georgians. President Biden, Vice President Harris, Senator Ossoff, Senator Reverend Warnock, and Georgia’s House Democrats promised us they would support families who need it most, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. While we continue to fight against the pandemic, the child tax cuts will be a lifeline for Georgia families and kids who will feel the impact of this program for generations to come.
