IN THE STATES: Senate Battleground Coverage Highlights Democrats’ Tax Cut For American Families

As the expanded child tax credit hits bank accounts this week, voters in key Senate battleground states are reading and watching wall-to-wall coverage of Democrats’ new tax cut for American families — and how every Republican voted against it. See for yourself:   

AZ – Arizona Republic: Arizona families now getting monthly child tax credit payments

• Starting Thursday, hundreds of dollars will show up in the bank accounts or mailboxes of Arizona families.

• The money is from the expanded federal child tax credit, part of the American Rescue Plan that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in March.

AZ – Tucson.com: More than 90% of Tucson families eligible for new child tax credit, study says

• An estimated 91% of Tucson’s families with children 17 and younger are eligible for the latest federal child tax credit, a study says. The monthly payments should show up in people’s bank accounts starting Thursday, July 15.

AZ – Cronkite News: Direct child tax credit checks start for thousands of Arizona families

• Gilbert resident Lori Ament said she and her husband both work full time to support themselves and their 5-year-old son and are getting by. But not much more.

• But help is coming Thursday in the form of monthly payments the IRS will begin sending to most American families with children, an advance on their 2021 tax returns that could mean up to $300 a month per child.

• “Putting money in the hands of families month to month is helping them then,” Ament said.   

AZ – KVOA

“Tens of thousands of Arizona families are getting a little more money every month because of an expanded Child Tax Credit that’s part of the American Rescue Plan.”

FL – WFLA: Child tax credit: Florida families to start getting payments this week

• Millions of Florida families will start receiving payments on Thursday as part of the American Rescue Plan’s child tax credit program, which provides families $250 to $300 a month per child until the end of the year.

• “This is transformational tax relief to hard working parents,” Sean Shaw with People Over Profits said.

FL – WOFL

“Thanks to this child tax credit, we will be able to recover from the pandemic and also we will be able to afford more things that we weren’t when we came back to work.”

GA – WSB: Millions of Georgians to see child tax credits hit bank accounts as soon as today

• Millions of Georgia families could see extra cash in their bank accounts as soon as Thursday as the federal child tax credit takes effect.

• “It’s going to be very helpful to have that extra money to help us out monthly with the extremely expensive child care,” Wagner said.

GA – WSB

“Anchor: We met Elizabeth Wagner and her two children McCalaster and McKinley in a shopping center parking lot in Tucker. She knew all about the Child Tax Credit due to hit millions of bank accounts nationwide starting Thursday.

Elizabeth Wagner: It’s going to be very helpful to have that extra money to help us out monthly with the extremely expensive child care.

Anchor: The Child Tax Credit is part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed by the Democratic controlled Congress earlier this year.”

GA – Atlanta Voice: Senators Ossoff and Warnock celebrate as Child Tax Credits head to parents’ bank accounts

• “Today is a big day for countless families across our state and throughout our nation. This tax cut for our working families will be a game changer, lifting over 160,000 children in Georgia out of poverty,” said Sen. Rev. Warnock. “I am proud to have helped secure this win for Georgia families alongside Sen. Ossoff, and I will continue working to make this tax cut permanent to help ensure future generations of Georgians thrive.”

GA – WSAV: Sen. Warnock calls child tax credit ‘a game-changer’ as payments begin

• Thursday, for the first time ever in the U.S., tens of millions of families, covering nearly 60 million children across America, will begin receiving monthly child tax credit payments.

• More than 1.2 million families in Georgia will get a check in July. Over $520 million for Georgia families to help 2 million children thrive.

GA – WSAV: Expanded child tax credit payments begin Thursday, Georgia lawmaker says it’s due to Democrats

• The expanded child tax credit that passed as part of the American Rescue Plan takes effect Thursday.

• “This pandemic really brought to light for me how broken our system is and how little support there is for working families,” said Jones. “Personally, I looking forward to the relief and I know many families are as well.”

• “For a lot of us, child care is a necessity and it’s expensive,” said Driver. “A lot of child care facilities had to increase costs to keep up with COVID compliance.”

• Driver said the monthly tax credit checks will “put food on so many tables across American and it will help families.”

• Rep. Williams said there are estimates that the expanded tax credit can benefit 2.2 million Georgia families and 171,000 children.

GA – Georgia Recorder: Democrats rush to take credit as federal child tax stipends set to arrive

• “I want to emphasize, again, that none of this would have been possible without the votes of Sens. Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock,” Williams said. “If Herschel Walker, Kelly Loeffler or any of the other people that they have on the GOP Senate candidate side challenging Sen. Warnock had their way, y’all, Georgia families wouldn’t be receiving these life-changing tax cuts. The child poverty rate in America wouldn’t be getting cut in half. That’s why we need to keep Raphael Warnock in the U.S. Senate next year, maintain Democratic majorities in the US House and Senate and elect new Democratic leadership for Georgia.”

NV – KTNV: The impact of child tax credits for Nevada families

• Time to check your bank accounts. Thousands of families here in Southern Nevada could be seeing money drop into their accounts as the first child tax credit payments are now out.

• Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) says the payments will be a big help. “These hard-working families with children will have the opportunity to have a refundable tax credit,” she said.

• More than 330,000 families in Nevada are set to get money from the federal government

• Ariel Davis, who also has two children says the money will be a difference-maker.

NV – KTNV

“Arielle Davis who also has two children says the money will be a difference maker.”

NH – InDepth NH: Dems: Sununu Opposed American Rescue Plan Behind Child Tax Credit Checks

• As families began seeing $300 monthly checks in their bank accounts for the first time Thursday for child tax credits, Democrats were thanking congressional leaders in Washington for making that happen, making clear that if Gov. Chris Sununu was serving in Washington, he would not have supported them.

• State Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Hopkinton, reminded reporters Thursday at a news conference that Sununu said in February he would have been a “no” vote on the federal American Rescue Plan were he in the U.S. Senate or House.

NH – WMUR: As child tax credit checks arrive, Democrats say Sununu would have followed McConnell in opposition to rescue plan

• A group of state Democratic leaders continued a barrage of criticism against Gov. Chris Sununu on Thursday as expanded child tax credit checks began arriving as part of the Biden administration’s massive American Rescue Plan.

• When the bill was being negotiated on Capitol Hill in February, Sununu said during a COVID-19 news briefing he “would be a ‘no’ vote” if he were in Washington. Sununu said the nearly $2 trillion bill was too expensive and became bogged down in partisan politics and in Democratic-pushed initiatives unrelated to COVID-19.

NH – New Hampshire Union Leader: Families looking forward to expanded child tax credit

• Mary Osborne said the expanded and advanced child care tax credit will free up enough money for her son to start playing a musical instrument. “Please look at this as an investment in our children, in our families and in our state as a whole,” Osborne said.

• And Nancy Glynn of Sutton said it means her son can go to camp this summer. “This, at the end of the day, helps create a harmonious household,” Glynn said.

NC – News & Observer: ‘It takes away a layer of stress:’ Child tax credit payments hit NC bank accounts

• For Durham’s Sarai Faison, a working mother of two, the monthly checks that began Thursday from an expanded child tax credit bring a sense of relief.

• In North Carolina, 1.1 million families, which includes 1.8 million children, will receive a check in July, according to the White House. Overall, families in the state will receive $476 million in July.

• The American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats in March, expanded the annual child tax credit from $2,000 per year to $3,600 for children under 6 and $3,000 for children 6 to 17. 

NC – WITN

“Here in North Carolina, the tax credit will help over 1.1 million families and the $476 million distributed in our state will help 1.8 million children.”

OH – WTAP

“This tax credit is the most sweeping pro-family policy in a generation.”

OH – News 5 Cleveland: Ohio families set to see first payments from enhanced child tax credit next week

• Lost in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan were changes to the child tax credit that will soon put extra money into the pockets of Ohio parents.

• “Ninety-two percent of Ohio kids are eligible for this,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, who helped to add the expanded monthly benefits into the American Rescue Plan.

PA – Pittsburgh Post Gazette: With child tax credits on the way, Pa. Dems call out Republicans who voted against American Rescue Plan

• As part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that President Joe Biden signed into law this past March, the Internal Revenue Service will begin sending expanded child tax credit payments to millions of families on Thursday, giving them a monthly boost until the end of the year as the U.S. continues to recover from COVID-19.

• Democrats in Pennsylvania marked the arrival of the payments by reminding voters that no Republican voted for the American Rescue Plan.

PA – WCAU

“The tax credit is part of the America Rescue Plan that President Biden signed into law earlier this year. Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey says the money will be a big boost for middle class families.”

PA – Pennsylvania Capital-Star: As child tax credit checks hit mailboxes, ‘I’m looking forward to having the safety net,’ Pa. mom says

• State and local governments and small businesses are poised to net billions of dollars in benefits under the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that President Joe Biden signed this week, which aims to juice an economy that’s seen its inequalities widen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• But the stimulus package also has another big winner: children.

WI – WXOW: Wisconsin parents to start seeing IRS money in their bank accounts monthly 

• Working parents will start seeing money in the bank accounts through the expanded child tax credit plan starting Thursday.

• It is a plan under the umbrella of the American Rescue Plan put out by Democrats in the federal government.

WI – Wisconsin State Journal: Child tax credit cash to start hitting parents’ bank accounts Thursday

• Beginning Thursday, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin parents will start getting monthly payments of $250 or $300 per child as part of a temporary expansion of the federal child tax credit included in the latest COVID-19 stimulus package, known as the American Rescue Plan.

WI – WKBT: Child tax credit coming for families in La Crosse area, across US

• The check is in the mail for millions of American Families.

• Starting Thursday, the IRS will pay half the total Child Tax credit amount in advance, monthly payments.

• La Crosse parents Gregory and Jillian Schams joined in to talk about what the tax credits mean to them.

• Jillian says, “having kids is wonderful, but it is expensive and so we’re just excited to receive the extended child tax credit, which can now go towards groceries, clothes, activities, and other essentials.” 

WI – WMTV

“Watch your bank accounts, 90,000 Wisconsin families are set to receive checks this month from the federal Child Tax Credit.”

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