Washington, D.C. – Families are in need of financial relief, and Congress can deliver conservative policies with the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, writes Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women’s Forum Director Patrice Onwuka in an op-ed with The Hill:

The Child Tax Credit has always been conservative policy:

“The left has been parading the Child Tax Credit as if it were their own, touting how many children have been lifted out of poverty as part of Biden’s remake of the CTC through the inflationary American Rescue Plan, which spurred 40-year-high inflation in 2022. In truth, the CTC is a conservative idea from start to finish. The CTC was the brainchild of Republicans as part of the 1994 Blueprint for America to elevate the primacy of families in society.”  

Work incentives continue to be central to the Child Tax Credit:

“Subsequent Republican administrations and Congresses expanded the tax credit and added or retained important work requirements to ensure that it did not become another form of welfare. As Ryan Ellis explained, ‘In its modern form, it is a combination of pro-family tax policy and a replacement for the now-defunct dependent exemption.’ Workforce engagement has always been central to the CTC, and it still is.”

CTC reforms in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act actually INCREASE labor supply:

“…there is a countervailing force pulling workers into the workforce. Changes to the phase-in of the CTC would incentivize more families at the lower end of the income spectrum. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation balances the two potential effects and finds that ‘the proposed expansion of the child tax credit on net increases labor supply.’” 

Congress should not pass up the opportunity to deliver economic relief to families and small businesses:

“The unemployment rate is steadily ticking up, it takes longer for workers to find new jobs, excess pandemic savings have been depleted, and the decline in real wages has left working families treading water. Whenever Congress can revise the tax code in ways that spur growth for businesses and provide relief to families, it shouldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

Read the op-e here.