On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that while he does think expanding the child tax credit worked, there isn’t the political will for it because, in addition to a general distrust of government programs that seem like giveaways, there is “a sense that we spent all this money over COVID, what’s happening in the national debt?”
Brooks said, “I think of all the things Biden did, that the child tax credit is the thing I supported most fervently. It really did reduce — and actually did reduce childhood poverty. And yet, I was surprised about the polling, it’s not a popular program. And so, I saw a poll where 60% of people just said, too expensive, we can’t afford it, including 47% of Democrats. And so there is a general distrust of government, a distrust of government programs, a distrust of programs that seem to give people money for nothing, and then a sense that we spent all this money over COVID, what’s happening in the national debt? And so, whether I like it or not, the political realities are, there’s not a lot — as much political pressure as I would have thought to keep the expansion.”
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