Giving Families Credit Where Credit Is Due

The case of the child tax credit particularly illustrates the problem. A $500-per-child credit for each child 17 years of age and under was dubbed the "Crown Jewel" of the Republican Contract with America in 1994. The GOP victory in House races that year paved the way for adoption of the credit, which, in truth, had enjoyed intellectual and political support from key figures in both major parties. The popular credit finally passed in 1997, and Congress doubled it in 2001 at President Bush's insistence.

The credit now returns an estimated $46 billion to families with children every year. That's money that can help pay for braces, buy a bicycle, or purchase a math tutoring program for the family computer. It might even finance an ice cream cone or a trip to the zoo. The point is, it's the family's money, and parents, and nations, make wise investments when they invest in kids.

The Senate budget bill extends this credit, and marriage penalty relief, for two years. Acting after the Senate, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and the House Ways and Means Committee have rejected an extension of both of these credits, and their version of the budget bill will tap families and businesses for an extra $392 billion over the next five years. Defenders of these huge hikes seize on the expiration date for President Bush's 2001 reforms and assert that they are not new taxes at all.

Nonsense. The Democratic Congress is reneging on a promise on which families have come to rely. A hike is a hike is a hike. We should remember that any tax reduction is a form of tax simplification. Government takes less, and the American people keep more. Then families can order more of what they want from a real store catalogue.