Democrats plan to highlight ‘middle-class tax cut’ during congressional recess

Democratic lawmakers will spend August touting how President Joe Biden’s agenda delivered direct financial assistance for some Americans, according to a new memo issued Tuesday, as they prepare to face voters during the scheduled congressional recess.

The memo, obtained by McClatchy and co-signed by the party’s three top national political organizations, amounts to an early indication of how Democrats plan to defend their slim congressional majorities ahead of next year’s midterm elections, emphasizing economic issues and highlighting GOP opposition to their policies.

“As members of Congress begin heading to their home states and districts, Democrats are unified around a single message: President Biden and Democrats are delivering results and building back better for the American people — no thanks to Republicans,” said the memo, written by officials from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee.

The memo points to three policies that Democratic members of the House and Senate intend to highlight: the White House’s new child tax credit policy, potential infrastructure investments and additional health care spending. The child tax credit and health care spending were part of the nearly $2 trillion pandemic relief package Biden signed into law in March after Congress passed it along party-line votes.

The child tax credit is a particular focus of the memo. When Democrats passed the pandemic relief bill earlier this year, they temporarily adjusted the child tax credit — a program designed to financially assist parents with children — so that some of its benefits would be delivered directly to the bank accounts of eligible families every month.

Biden hailed the plan as a way to greatly reduce childhood poverty. In the memo, the party calls it “a tax cut for middle-class families” available to tens of millions of families.

It also emphasizes extra subsidies included in the pandemic relief law for health care exchanges, party efforts to lower prescription drug costs, and national job growth since Biden took office.

“This August, Democrats across the country will make sure that voters know that the ‘D’ in Democrat stands for ‘deliver’ by highlighting the contrast between the parties on three central areas — all of which are helping Americans get back to work and back on their feet after the pandemic,” it says.

Lawmakers traditionally receive a burst of feedback from constituents in August, when they return to their states and districts during an extended congressional recess.

This year, Democrats could face backlash from some voters worried about inflation, crime an immigration. Republicans have seized on all three issues to criticize the Biden administration, arguing that they will be key to the party winning control of Congress in 2022.

Recent history is on the GOP’s side. The party in control of the White House has lost at least one chamber of Congress in every midterm election dating back to 2006.

Democrats hold an effective majority of 50 seats in the Senate, thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. The party’s majority in the House is not much larger, as they currently only have eight more members than the Republicans.

This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Democrats plan to highlight ‘middle-class tax cut’ during congressional recess."