Bush Signs New Tax Law: Some Military Kids Left Out
According to a USA TODAY article, “Nearly one in five children of active-duty U.S. military families won't benefit from the increased tax credit signed last week by President Bush because their parents earn too little to qualify.” The information comes from a study released by the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), a liberal children’s advocacy group, whose findings are based on the latest U.S. Census data. The analysis released today indicates, “One million children living in military and veteran families are being denied child tax credit help by the recently enacted massive tax cut package tilted toward the rich.”
House and Senate leaders abandoned a provision, with the Bush Administration’s approval, that would have allowed military families to receive a check of up to $400 per child. Nevertheless, the "refundable" credit to families who pay taxes on wages but qualify to pay little or no federal income tax was removed in final negotiations. In other words, 250,000 of the 1.4 million children with active-duty parents and 750,000 children of military veterans will receive nothing from the entire tax law because their hard working parents earn too little. USA TODAY quotes Sen. Max Baucus as saying, "Thousands of military personnel, people who put their lives on the line for our country, won't receive the child credit unless we correct the bill."
Under the new tax law, only the military families with children, whose income exceeds about $27,000 a year, are due to receive the refund credit checks of up to $400 per child next month. This money is actually an advance on an increase in the 2003 child tax credit from $600 to $1,000.
Democrats and moderate Republicans are pressuring the government to pass legislation immediately that would extend the credit to those families who were not included. Swift action is needed in order to get the checks out to low-income military families when the government begins mailing them out on July 1, 2003.
House Republican leaders are opposing the move. They say that sending tax refunds to people who do not pay federal income tax may be bad policy and that Bush didn't propose giving the added credit to the working poor as part of his original economic stimulus plan.
This isn’t the first time President Bush has put military children in a state of uncertainty. Earlier this year, as Bush deployed thousands of troops for war with Iraq, school systems that educate many of their children were in danger of losing millions of dollars in government funding also known as impact aid. (Read the CNN story School officials slam Bush plan for military kids.)
At that time, Bush’s proposed budget eliminated 240,000 children of military personnel who live off base and go to public schools from the funding formula, cutting millions of dollars from their education. 1,300 school districts receive and rely on federal impact aid because they can’t assess taxes on federal property or tribal reservations. But they still have to educate children whose parents live or work there.
I am only left with one question in my mind. What ever happened to ‘No Child Left Behind’? UPDATES:
Thursday (June 5,2003)
The Senate voted on Thursday (June 5,2003) in an overwhelming 94-2 vote to qualify more low-wage workers, which includes thousands of military families, to receive an advance refund of up to $400 for an increased child tax credit. The vote draws attention to the political push building around the issue. The president must sign the tax package by June 23 for the families to receive the checks along with middle-income households already scheduled to get an advance refund. Before recipients can count on the money, the House must pass the bill. House Republican leaders have not said whether they will consider the legislation.
Monday (June 9,2003)
Today, several news agencies reported that President Bush is backpedaling and now supports a bill expanding the child tax credit for lower-income families, which he excluded from tax-cut legislation that he signed last month. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, "The president thinks it's a good idea. He wants to sign that legislation, hopes that the Congress will get it to him quickly."
When asked if Bush would pressure the GOP House leadership to approve it, Fleischer said Bush "will make certain that his message is understood." Fleischer also said, "He believes that it's important. We'll work with the House, the House's ideas, but the president thinks at its core, what the Senate has done is the right thing to do, a good thing to do, and he wants to sign it."
According to The New York Times, "The president's message to House Republican leaders, relayed through Mr. Fleischer, showed that Mr. Bush and his top advisers feel that it is time to put an image problem behind them."
Wednesday (June 11,2003)
CNN reports "The House is set to vote Thursday on a broad $81 billion tax relief package, backed by GOP leaders, including a provision to extend a child tax credit to low-income families left out of a major tax cut enacted last month."
Friday (June 13,2003)
Today, The Boston Globe reported that the House barely passed its version of a child tax credit 224-201. They voted to extend $1,000 child tax credits through the rest of the decade, but families that were left out of the original tax package probably won't receive their rebates this summer. However, the bill doesn't prohibit the Treasury Department from issuing the checks later this year, so it is possible that the final version will include rebates for those families this fall.
The House's package inlcudes $82 billion in new tax cuts. This is likely to cause a conflict with the Senate, which passed a much smaller bill a week ago to allow the left out households to qualify for the credit refund.
