National View: Sen. Manchin needs to be on the side of helping kids

[CousinIT]

"A multimillionaire politician funded by corporate coal interests has the power to push my 4-year-old boy and me off the economic cliff. Or he can pull us back from the brink and start investing in a brighter future."

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/opinion/columns/7342238-National-View-Sen.-Manchin-needs-to-be-on-the-side-of-helping-kids

I work hard to make ends meet for my family. But as an educator in West Virginia, that’s hard sometimes — especially with child care expenses.

Fortunately, the expanded Child Tax Credit that Democrats passed last spring has been a lifeline. Those monthly payments have meant my child has food, a roof, electricity, and heat. It means I have less stress and can be a better mother. And the expanded tax credit has meant I can stay employed because I can afford child care.

Across the U.S., 65 million children and families like mine have been getting these monthly payments of up to $300 per child — including nearly every child in West Virginia, whose children are among the poorest in the country.

Unfortunately, because Congress failed to pass the Build Back Better Act before the end of 2021, those payments have now expired.

Not one Republican lawmaker on Capitol Hill supports extending tax relief for everyday Americans — even though they had no trouble passing trillions in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans when President Donald Trump was in power.

So Democrats have been working on extending these payments to ordinary families without Republicans. But one of their own keeps standing in their way: my Sen. Joe Manchin. So far, Manchin has joined his Republican colleagues in refusing to support this tax relief for the rest of us. . . .

[XanaDUer2]

1. This enraged me nt