The stimulus bill's Child Tax Credit expansion is exactly the pandemic relief parents need

When big legislation makes its way through Congress, peeling back the layers usually reveals the rot inside. Once they're brought into the light, we see why provisions were slipped into a bigger package. But that doesn't seem to be the case with the Covid-19 stimulus bill, which is set to pass the House on its way to President Joe Biden's desk on Wednesday. Instead, if you examine the $1.9 trillion relief package, you'll find more and more provisions designed to help people than were originally highlighted. Everyone has heard about the $1,400 stimulus checks by now. But have you heard about the provision that one analysis says could help reduce child poverty by almost half? It's there — and it shows how far the country has come in wanting to help the unfortunate since I was a kid. The bill includes $125 billion in additional funding for the Child Tax Credit, which since 1997 has offered just what it says: a credit to give middle-class parents some tax relief. The stimulus bill would expand on the Child Tax Credit in three major ways. First, it would bump up the maximum credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000. (That would be raised to $3,600 for kids under 6.) Second, it would get rid of income requirements on one end and a refund cap on the other, meaning more families would be eligible for cash.