Child Wellbeing: Biden’s Pro-Family Compassion Versus Trump’s Indifference and Cruelty

President Biden has a deep compassion for all children, which is why his pro-family policies are designed to lift families into the middle class and help the most vulnerable children. 

Cutting Child Poverty with the Expanded Child Tax Credit

One of the greatest successes in our nation’s history for helping needy children was the one-year expanded Child Tax Credit passed in April 2021 as part of President Biden’s first major legislative achievement, the American Rescue Plan. 

• It was primarily responsible for removing 7.3 million children from poverty. 

• After Republicans refused to extend the program, 5 million children fell back into poverty.

Now there is the possibility of passing legislation to reintroduce a slimed-down version of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), because some Republicans are ready to make a deal if they get some tax write-offs for corporations. 

• This CTC would help 16 million children and lift up to 400,000 children out of poverty in the first year.

• It is designed explicitly to help larger families, who have been slighted in the past.

Evangelicals For Biden has worked to enact this CTC.  It could be another bipartisan victory for President Biden and help return us to a semblance of bipartisan compassion that reflects the true heart of our nation.  

Thankfully the House overwhelmingly passed a tax package including CTC.  

But some Senate Republicans don’t want to help families with children struggling to make ends meet because it could help President Biden and thus hurt chances to extend tax cuts for the rich.  As Sen. Grassley (R-IA) said:

“Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good — mailing out checks before the election — means he could be re-elected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts.”

Will Republicans in the Senate block helping poor children have a better chance in life because they don’t want to give President Biden a victory on one of the priorities close to his heart, and because they want to extend tax cuts for the rich, which will only happen if Mr. Trump is reelected?

President Biden is not giving up: “I’ll continue to fight to restore the expanded Child Tax Credit and get families the relief they deserve.”

In contrast to President Biden’s compassion for vulnerable children, Mr. Trump and his Administration were downright cruel to them:

• Separated more and 5,400 children from their families at the border.

• Denied 5 million of the neediest children of food assistance approved by Congress during the pandemic.

• Proposed cutting food assistance by 30% for 10 years, impacting over 9 million households with children.

• Proposed kicking around 1 million needy children off the program providing free/reduced cost lunches.

• Implemented policies that resulted in over 725,000 children losing health insurance.

This extreme anti-child Trump agenda is not who we are as a nation, giving a $1 trillion tax giveaway to corporations and the rich and then cutting programs for poor children.

Making Sure Innocent Children Have Access to Healthcare

President Biden is improving child wellbeing through all of his pro-family efforts, including healthcare.  Due to his strengthening of Obamacare:

• four out of five people on the Healthcare Marketplace are able to find a plan for less than $10 a month, and over 90% have three or more options from which to choose;

• working families are saving an average of $800 per person a year thanks to health care subsidies provided by Biden’s legislative victories;

• over 8 million have been freed from struggling with medical debt.

Strengthening the Middle Class

President Biden will continue his pro-family policies by growing the middle class.  Guided by his strong belief that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from providing for one’s family, our economic recovery from the deep pandemic recession has been the fairest in our nation’s history. 

• 14 million jobs and counting have been created on President Biden’s watch. 

• Such a wealth of jobs has led to low unemployment during Biden’s presidency and the longest stretch of unemployment below 4% in over 50 years.

• This includes the lowest unemployment numbers in history for Hispanics, Blacks, and persons with disabilities.

• Melissa Calderon, President/CEO of Prosperity Now notes that the continued increase in healthcare, professional and business services, and retail and social assistance “are a blueprint for eliminating the country’s racial and ethnic income inequality.”

• Real wages are higher today for the average worker than they were in the pre-pandemic Trump years, adding $1,400 to the yearly family budget.

President Biden is also working hard to stop corporations from price-gouging American families.  He has gotten rid of unfair hidden fees or “junk fees” by banks, credit cards, hotels, rental housing, cable, concerts, airlines, and healthcare that strain the family budget.

 The Biden Administration has:

• made it illegal for banks to charge for basic services, such as charging $30 to check your balance;

• reduced overdraft fees by about 50%, saving an average of $150 for 33 million American families;

• stopped credit card companies from gouging people with insane fees; instead of paying an average of $31 for making a late payment, now they can’t charge you more than $8.

Protecting the Vulnerable from Toxic Pollution

Finally, President Biden’s environmental policies also reflect his belief in the dignity of every person and his compassion for vulnerable children.  While everyone is harmed by pollution, children, especially unborn children, are more vulnerable and need our protection because their bodies are smaller and still developing.

President Biden’s Administration has issued stricter standards on:

• mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin, especially harmful to unborn children, causing brain damage and heart damage; this stricter standard will result in up to $1.9 billion in health benefits;

• soot, or tiny particles, saving 4,000 lives and avoiding 270,000 lost work days;

• vehicle pollution, resulting from two standards, the first in effect through 2026, creating $190 billion in net benefits for human health and family budgets, and the second starting in 2027 that will generate $13 billion in health benefits and $62 billion in savings for families;

• methane pollution and other pollutants associated with oil and natural gas operations, that will reduce 16 million tons of smog-forming volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that increase asthma attacks, and 590,000 tons of toxic pollutants like benzene, a cancer agent;

• lead pipes in schools requiring them to be replaced within 10 years;

• toxic chemicals in our drinking water, including the first-ever standard for toxic chemicals, called PFAS.

President Biden is also making pro-family, pro-child investments, such as:

• reducing pollution in schools, including $32 million to reduce indoor air pollution and $58 million to replace lead pipes;

• $50 billion, the largest investment ever, to upgrade the nation’s water infrastructure, including $15 billion to replace lead pipes.

When it comes to child wellbeing and helping families, the choice couldn’t be clearer.  Mr. Trump’s policies towards children were cruel.  President Biden and his pro-family policies are guided by his compassion for children and his belief that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from providing for and protecting one’s family.