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Readers respond: Congress should restore expanded child tax credit

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The recent midterm elections saw many voters rejecting extremist candidates and embracing those who really are trying to use government to help their constituents. Although taxes raise money that can be spent on the public good, tax policies always favor some folks more than others.

During the height of the pandemic, the expanded Child Tax Credit reduced the child poverty rate by 40%. A simple monthly payment allowed parents to stay home with their kids—or to pay for daycare so that they could go to work. The Niskanen Center supports the child tax credit, and Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimates that its social benefits (lower infant mortality, lower long-term health care costs, more children becoming more productive citizens) outweigh the costs by eight to one. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has been one of the child tax credit’s strongest supporters. The expanded credit was allowed to lapse, but with the lessons of the midterms in mind the members of Congress now have a chance to restore it. Please call upon your representative, of either party, to take this simple but crucial step toward creating a better America.

Randolph Splitter, Portland

To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.

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