The emergence of Romney’s child support plan while the Democrats prepare for similar efforts could give the White House an opportunity to include bipartisan support in its relief package. Romney said Biden’s stimulus proposal was too expensive, which means he might vote against the broader plan, even if it included much of his new proposal for child support.

Romney’s new plan, as investigated by senior Democrats, would have the advantage of being deposited directly into taxpayers’ bank accounts on a monthly basis. Proponents of the expansion of child benefits say it will hugely curb child poverty in the United States, although some conservative scholars argue that the benefits could deter parents from seeking employment. The level of GOP support for Romney’s proposal is unclear.

Senate power shifts as the Biden administration tries to negotiate a new round of coronavirus control measures. (The Washington Post)

Contrary to the Democrats’ plan, Romney’s Family Safety Act would be paid in part through the abolition of Temporary Aid to Needy Families, a welfare program, and other existing federal tax credits for children and working families. Many Democrats are likely to oppose this part of Romney’s plan.

Romney is expected to offer the bill on Thursday evening as an amendment to the Democrats’ budget resolution, according to two people who spoke about the internal planning on condition of anonymity. The budget resolution is the vehicle to pass Biden’s stimulus package.

“We haven’t reformed our family support system in nearly three decades, and our changing economy has left millions of families behind,” Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential candidate, said in a statement. “Now is the time to renew our commitment to.” Families who help them overcome the challenges they face in doing the most important job each of us will ever do – raising the children of our society. “

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain responded to the proposal Thursday, tweeted, “I’m very excited to see what @SenatorRomney will propose here – an encouraging sign that bipartisan action to reduce child poverty is possible.”

The United States currently has one of the highest child poverty rates in developed countries, a trend exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The nation provides less financial support to families with children than all but a handful of developed countries. This has led Democratic lawmakers like Sens. Michael F. Bennet (Colorado) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) to push legislation to expand child support, which is nearly universal support among Democratic members.

Their push is now gaining bipartisan momentum, partly due to socially conservative forces like Romney and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who have also raised concerns about high child poverty.

Romney’s plan would have a dramatic impact on reducing child poverty, according to an analysis by the Niskanen Center, a center-right think tank. The share of children in poverty would decrease by about 32 percent, with nearly 3 million people lifted out of poverty. In addition, the percentage of children in “deep poverty” would decrease by about 50 percent, which means that about 1.2 million children would be lifted out of deep poverty, according to the analysis.

“Romney’s proposal shows that there is a significant bipartisan agreement in place to expand child support,” said Ernie Tedeschi, an economist who served in the Treasury under the Obama administration. “A permanent expansion along the lines of Senator Romney or President Biden would be one of the most family-friendly measures to reduce poverty in a generation.”

Some Liberal Democrats said Romney’s plan could be improved by maintaining the tax credits and welfare program intended to fund the new child benefit. “It is wrong to undermine the poverty alleviation effects of policies by making deep cuts in other critical forms of support for low-income people to pay for,” said Sharon Parrott, president of the Center for Budgetary and Policy Priorities. a democratically oriented think tank. “There are far better funding options, where those who do their best are encouraged to do a little more.”

Romney’s plan would also be of no benefit to people living in the United States without a Social Security number. In its 2017 tax bill, the GOP withdrew up to 4 million immigrants from receiving their existing child tax credit – which Romney is misappropriating for his new proposal.

Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project, a left-wing think tank, said the benefits Romney’s new plan brings to poor families outweigh the potential drawbacks of eliminating those programs, which Bruenig said are complicated and difficult for families to navigate.

On the right, Angela Rachidi, a conservative scholar at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, wrote last month that extending child benefits to the poorest families “would reduce employment for low-income parents.”

“When you add other benefits that unemployed people get – like food stamps and housing benefits – [to the proposed child tax credit]You’ll get $ 25,000 in benefits. Here you worry about barriers to employment, ”said Rachidi in an interview.

Sam Hammond, a poverty expert at the Niskanen Center, said that work disruptions are caused by a sharp drop in performance scores with rising earnings, which the Romney Plan will avoid.

Romney’s move reflects slow change among policymakers after several decades when tax cuts were often the main anti-poverty strategy for either party, said Joshua McCabe, a US welfare historian at Endicott College.

Since there are few taxes to be cut after huge tax cuts in recent decades, political decision-makers have begun to make direct cash payments to the poor in recent years. That trend was accelerated dramatically by the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic last year, as tens of millions of people received direct payments from the Internal Revenue Service backed by politicians from both parties.

“Since we exhausted the tax cut strategy, legislators have begun to get involved in direct payments. But the kovid relief brought that idea to a standstill – it naturalized and legitimized it, ”said McCabe. “That’s why we now have Republicans who say this is the best way to fight poverty.”

Romney’s plan differs from Biden’s in several key ways. Romney proposes paying for the move by both consolidating existing government programs and ending a policy that allows Americans to deduct up to $ 10,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax obligations. This is expected of the Democrats, especially those who represent areas with higher taxes taxes.

If it went into effect, Romney’s plan would be deficit-neutral and would fund the new child benefit through 2025, according to the analysis by the Niskanen Center.

Biden has proposed a year-long hike in child support that would add about $ 120 billion to the deficit. Senior Democrats and Biden officials have stated that they intend to make the performance permanent after potentially being approved for a year in the current stimulus package.

Romney’s plan would also reduce the benefit to over $ 200,000 per annum for individual taxpayers and $ 400,000 for joint taxpayers. Democrats haven’t given detailed income thresholds for the child tax credit expansion, which they are expected to reveal in a few days.

Romney’s plan would also see the new benefit administered through the Social Security Agency rather than the IRS, which some federal government experts believe would make reaching poor families with unreliable tax return information easier. It would also limit the potential monthly benefit a family can receive to $ 1,250.