Fox News Host Challenges Republican Senator With Data Showing How Child Tax Credit Decreases Poverty

By Alex GriffingDec 26th, 2021, 5:21 pm184 comments

Mike Emanuel, guest-hosting Chris Wallace’s old show Fox News Sunday, challenged Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) over the Republican Party’s opposition to extending the Child Tax Credit – a key provision of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.

“Senator, one of the casualties of the collapse of that bill is the child tax credit that expires at the end of the year,” Emanuel, who is Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, noted.

“According to the Urban Institute, continuing the benefit could have a significant impact on child poverty, reducing child poverty to about 8.4 percent from 14.2 percent, a fall of roughly 40 percent,” Emanuel explained, flashing a graphic on the screen.

“Is that a compelling argument to extend it?” Emanuel asked.

Blunt responded by saying the Republicans previously doubled the child tax credit and argued Democrats’ House bill “just simply doesn’t make sense.”

“You know, putting a cap on families in need is what we can do, should do and would do in the country—and I think could do in a bipartisan way,” Blunt continued, adding:

Again, we doubled the child tax credit just a handful of years ago. And we need to look at that if that’s no longer meeting the need of moving kids out of poverty. But families that make $150,000, for instance, aren’t in poverty in Missouri. I don’t think they are in poverty almost anywhere in the United States.

Emanuel pushed the senator further noting that some analysts say the extension of the credit would “bolster financial security and spur economic growth in Missouri by reducing taxes on the middle class and those striving to break into it. How do you respond?”


Blunt didn’t directly answer the question, instead, he argued that the Build Back Better bill was full of “gimmicks” which would result in programs included in the bill, which are only meant to be temporary, inevitably becoming permanent spending.

Blunt jested his friends call the bill “build back broker” due to its massive spending increase.