Nearly half of Donald Trump supporters want Congress to bring back the child tax credit that lapsed a year and a half ago, a new poll shows.
Exclusive Newsweek polling conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies found that 47 percent of Americans who voted for the former president in 2020 support the reinstatement of the enhanced child tax credit, which temporarily offered parents up to $3,600 per child. Comparably, 26 percent of Trump supporters oppose bringing the tax benefit back, while 23 percent say they neither support nor oppose the measure.
For six months during the COVID pandemic, the federal government offered families $300 in monthly payments for each child. The policy was credited with drastically reducing child poverty and was widely popular among both Democrats and Republicans, but it expired in 2021 after congressional lawmakers failed to extend it.
Democrats have prioritized reviving the expansion during this congressional session, and now that polls show broad support for such legislation, even some Republicans are working to bring the credit back.
The Redfield & Wilton poll, conducted between August 5 and 6 among 1,500 likely voters, shows that more than half of Americans, 52 percent, support the reinstatement of the child tax credit. Only 18 percent oppose doing so, while 24 percent said they neither support nor oppose it. Another 7 percent said they did not know.
The highest support for the benefit's revival comes from millennials and President Joe Biden voters, with 60 percent and 59 percent saying they back reinstating the $3,600 payments, respectively. The credit also appears to have support across the nation, with 54 percent support in the Midwest, 51 percent support in the South and the Northeast and 50 percent support in the West.
GOP Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, previously told Newsweek that he's "optimistic" that bipartisan lawmakers can "work together to achieve a fair compromise on this issue and reach a solution that will support working families."
"The child tax credit provides meaningful tax relief for many working American families," Fitzpatrick said.
GOP Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has introduced his own proposal that would not only offer more money than the 2021 credit does but also expand the benefit to include fetuses in the womb.
Rubio's Providing for Life Act would expand the child credit to $4,500 for children under the age of 6 and $3,500 for older kids, with payments being sent out annually rather than monthly.
The measure would also allow parents to apply the benefit retroactively to a year of pregnancy once a child is born.
