The Line Between the Child Tax Credit and the Pause on Student Loan Payments
By Lew Blank and Ahmad Ali
35 million families. 32 million borrowers. In the coming months, millions of American families with student loan debt could be dealt two consecutive economic blows. The expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit, which Congress has until December 28th to extend to prevent a lapse in its monthly payments into the new year, and the lifting of the pause on federal student loan payments on February 1st, could combine to push countless families into economic strife — as well as produce serious political consequences for policymakers in Congress and the White House.
The expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit and the pause on student loan payments are together connected to the pocketbook anxieties of voters. Millions of Americans will feel their household budgets further constrained at a time when consumer sentiment is staggering and concerns of rising prices are reaching recent highs.
Reducing the burden of paying for everyday goods and the overall cost of living is a critical political intuition. New polling from Fighting Chance for Families finds that a strong plurality of voters are “not at all” confident they can repay their student loans. The poll also finds that recipients of the expanded Child Tax Credit feel more confident they can repay their student loans.
Altogether, voters are not confident they can repay these loans when the pause on repayments lifts in February. To mitigate the pocketbook anxieties of Americans and to prevent a political backlash that will surely be felt going into a challenging midterm cycle, Democrats should move swiftly toward extending the expanded Child Tax Credit and continuing the pause on student loan payments. These issues are made more important given the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant and concerns about inflation.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a senior writer at Data for Progress.
Ahmad Ali (@RealAhmadAli) is Press Secretary at Data for Progress.