We Asked You To Share Your Biden Child Tax Credit Stories. Now You've Gone And Made Us Cry.

DAMN YOUR EYES.

We asked you Terrible Ones yesterday to tell us how you and your families have been making use of the expanded Child Tax Credit payments that started going out last week, and golly howdy, you had a lot of things to tell us! I also asked for stories on the electric Twitter box, so let's take a quick look at how members of the Wonketariat are putting their real middle-class tax cuts to use.

Also, we'd like to tell "BK" in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to stop emailing "I LIKE BEER!" over and over. We get it, dude.

So how is government making a difference to Americans, or at least the filthy-minded Americans who read this little mommyblog where comments aren't even allowed? (It's a wonder that anyone even managed to answer, considering.) We'll let you all stay anonymous, and then five of you can brag in the comments about how you each wrote the best one.

 We are using it to help pay for the moving company to get our kids out of Texas schools. Figure it's a solid investment in their future. 

Our four-year-old got hit by a car and broke his leg at the end of June, so this first payment will help defray some of the medical costs.

 I have a cousin who is a personal care assistant and her S.O. is a roofer. They work hard. Except that he's had health issues and has been in and out of work for the last 18 months. They have 3 kids, 2 are teens and a 3 year-old. The pandemic has been hellish for the family... She got $800 in her bank account last week. It's a game changer for them. 

I work for a bank and I talked to a lady who was opening up a savings account for her child and putting the money in that account. She wants her child to have a little nest egg when they get older. I hope every time she deposits money in that account, A conservative gets explosive diarrhea.

 I'm not getting the tax credit because my household makes too much money. I'm grateful for that. I don't need the money. Please please please give it to someone who does. 

  My niece (five kids, dad took off) bought real beds for her two youngest.

 Friends from church (early 30s, four kids, both parents work hard at low-paying jobs) took the first vacation of their lives. My husband and I literally sat down with them to explain how 'going on vacation' works 

My kids are both grown, but OMG this will help the students I used to work with at an inner-city university; they were almost ALL first generation kids who sometimes were on the brink of financial disaster (eg, the student who received the Outstanding Student award one semester, who had completed several semesters while living in her car).

 My youngest son, who will have his 5th child by the end of the year, reckons it's a game-changer. 

We paid for most of the back to school supplies. we can afford them w/o the credit but its a nice cushion and we can get a few more uniform shirts since his tend to die a fast death between dirt and art class.

 I went for a walk a couple days ago and my young neighbor waved to me and wished me a good walk. I detoured to inquire if he and his wife had applied for the CTC yet. It's a good thing I did because his eyes went wide and he went into "Tell Me More!" mode. Thankfully, as a regular reader I knew enough to 'splain him how OHJB actually does love him, his wife and their two toddlers. 

We got ours, it went right to summer childcare, and summer clothing. Helped quite a bit.

Dok here again: there were alsolots and lots of comments along these lines, which just goes to show that you people Get It:

This childless middle aged woman totally supports expanded child tax credits even though it doesn't benefit me in any way.

Except by making my society a better place... Which is kind of huge.

Also too, this suggestion from another reader:

I just got an email from BFF who is a teacher in a poor, city school. She usually pays out of pocket for school supplies (and take-home snacks for kids that aren't getting sufficient food at home), but in 2019, finally signed up for Donors Choose for Teachers . For those of you who are talking about getting the CTC, but not really needing it, please consider Donors Choose, and/or giving to an organization that provides meals to kids when they're not in school.

And finally, this story just really gets to the essence of what good the expanded Child Tax Credit is doing, and why we should keep the pressure on Congress to make it permanent. (I've lightly edited it to add paragraph breaks; it was clearly typed quickly and with a hell of a lot of emotion.)

Kids, this is why we should be proud to be progressives:

My nephew and his wife are both somewhat developmentally disabled. He works as a stocker at Walmart, and she works as a nurse's assistant. They both make close to minimum wage and have 3 kids. This $750 is paying their rent. It's literally life changing for them. They can finally almost make it on their own instead of being supported by their parents, grandparents and uncle.

The feeling of pride in being able to support yourself and your family is the only dignity they have left after being treated like the help or a charity case all day at work. Food stamps are humiliating every time they get groceries, and the disability check they get is just another reminder that they're disabled and can't take care of themselves. But this is a tax credit, it's their money that they earned and the government is letting them spend it on what they want, not shaming them if they want to drink a soda once a year.

It's easy for politicians to ignore people like them. They don't show up at fundraisers or have time to go to a town hall after working all day. They don't have time to watch the news and don't understand most of it anyway. But now they get to hold their heads up a little bit higher because they feel like a productive member of society instead of a burden on their family and on society.

My nephew is almost blind and has the cognitive ability of a 14 year old, he's not going to work hard and move up in the company, his bootstraps are already pulled as tight as they will go, but now he feels like a man who is taking care of his own and he can hold his head up just a little bit higher. To him this is huge.

Thank you all for sharing,and how about we make sure the Democrats who worked for years for a child allowance can follow up and extend it in the reconciliation bill? Might even be nice to turn out voters everywhere in 2022, and to start talking about other Big Structural Changes as well. Let's make sure all the babies grow up loved and healthy, with healthcare, on a planet that's healing from the damage we've done to it.

 If you're not sure you qualify for the expanded Child Tax Credit, check your eligibility at the IRS CTC Portal. And remember, even if someone didn't make enough to have to file in 2020, they can still qualify, but they'll need to go the IRS's Non-Filer signup tool.  

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