Thread by @l78lancer

Republicans are still outright useless obstructionists, but people like Romney still think our heads screw on backward.

Why?

If a parent loses a job, and may or may not be eligible for unemployment, the sudden change in their status may necessitate them needed temporary aid.

That's one of the purposes of Temporary Aid to Needy Families program (TANF.) TANF came into existence in 1997 when the republicans on insisted, and democrats capitulated, and they killed welfare under the guise of "welfare reform."

In doing so, killing welfare didn't force people to work, and although stated as such, that was never really the goal. The real purpose was to eliminate a source of funds from the government to poor people, many of whom simply fell into permanent poverty crack and were forgotten.

(NOTE: When you think about it, there are almost no reports over the past 25 years of the success of welfare to work due to welfare reform. That's because unemployment did not significantly decrease for individuals and the low end of the economic scale...

...and child poverty actually increased after welfare reform until it began decreasing under the Obama administration when the earned income tax credit (EITC) was expanded in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2010.

The Obama Administration submitted a proposal to extend the EITC in 2014, but of course it did not occur once the democrats lost senate the majority.)

obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/…

Whereas, the current child tax credit (CTC) was implemented as part of the American Rescue Plan 2021 pandemic relief for the purpose of alleviating child hunger and poverty across the board. The reality is while they may be connected, the CTC has nothing to do with TANF.

What Romney proposes is implementing the child tax credit and in exchange, eliminating TANF. For what purpose? If a parent loses their job, they will still be in just as much need of the CTC as they were before even if they receive TANF which is not permanent income replacement.

And anyone who has ever received unemployment compensation knows that UC is not only not wages replacement, but it also covers barely a fraction of lost income anyway. Using it to deny TANF then is counterproductive and vindictive.

So, I mean it sincerely when I say that Romney's alleged proposal of an alternative child tax credit plan is completely dumb as it attempts to trade one program for the other which negates to point of the programs effectively...

... while being customarily stingy and attempting to punish poor people because they are poor. It's, cheap greedy, selfish, conservative morality shrouded in punitive mendacity and self-righteousness, not fiscally prudent. And it's just bad policy.

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