By Eric Mitchell
Congressional leaders just unveiled a major tax package that could prevent 16 million people from falling into or deeper into poverty. TOMORROW, Congress will begin voting on making permanent expiring provisions of the earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC).
Please call (800/826-3688) or email your U.S. representative and your U.S. senators. Urge Congress to VOTE YES on the tax bill.
For the past six years, we’ve been working to make the current EITC and CTC benefit levels permanent. If Congress passes this bill, it will be an enormous victory!
Don’t let Congress put off this important opportunity. If we miss this chance, we’ll have to wait until 2017 to try again, leaving these low-income tax credits in enormous jeopardy. Who knows what the political landscape will be in 2017?
The tax bill includes a number of other business tax breaks that Congress repeatedly extends. But your relentless advocacy got the EITC and CTC into that bill as a first step. Now we need that bill to become law. The EITC and CTC lift more people out of poverty in the U.S. than any other program, excluding Social Security.
In this season of expectation and hope, as we celebrate the coming of the light into the world, let us together achieve a real victory for low-income, working families. Please reach out to your members of Congress today, and let’s end 2015 a little closer to a world without hunger.
Eric Mitchell is the director of government relations at Bread for the World.
