New Petition Directs Congress and Biden to Continue Sending Monthly Stimulus Payments
Congress was petitioned to extend the monthly Child Tax Credit payments referring to the recurring payments as the difference between “begging” and “dignity.”
Restauranteur Stephanie Bonin started a petition for $2,000 monthly stimulus checks last year, and her petition has gathered more than 3 million signatures. A week ago, she helped to create a spin-off petition intended to encourage Congress to extend the Child Tax Credit payment into 2022, which she considers very similar to stimulus checks because it is a recurring payment.
“These child checks are not the answer to all our monthly bills and all our problems, but they make a difference in making our families’ finances work. They empower us to make change happen. These checks represent the difference between begging and dignity,” Bonin and her co-creator, Stephanie Land, author of MAID, Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive, wrote in the petition.
Within a week, nearly 40,000 signatures had been collected, just a few thousand short of the 50,000 signature goal.
As part of the petition, Congress, as well as President Joe Biden, were urged to maintain the monthly payments for the Child Tax Credit in 2022, describing it as a potential “opportunity of good” that might come from the terrible pandemic.
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In their remarks, Bonin and Land admitted that the checks don’t provide enough for a family and that there is a need for job opportunities. However, the two women, who are both mothers, explained that the checks support their families in a variety of ways, including childcare, clothes, and groceries. In addition, the checks allow parents to sign their children up for after-school programs.
“Monthly cash can change that. It is support that we receive automatically without jumping through hoops and red tape,” the petition announced.
Children under six years old received $3,600 and all other eligible children received $3,000 under the American Rescue Plan, a relief package passed in March. A half-credit was also made available in monthly payments beginning in January and ending this month.
The White House is only inclined to move in small steps toward that goal as Biden wants to make the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent. The Build Back Better Act will be expanded under the Child Tax Credit payments through 2022.
