Problem: We discussed the Child Tax Credit, which currently grants taxpayers a partially refundable tax credit of $2,000 for each of their qualifying child dependents under age 17 and $500 for each of their other dependents. This credit was first introduced in 1997, but it has been altered and expanded in a bipartisan manner since 2001. Initially, the child tax credit began to phase out for families earning over $110,000 in adjusted gross income ($75,000 for single taxpayers). However, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 both doubled the size of the credit and increased the phase-out amount from $110,000 to $400,000 for married taxpayers ($75,000 to $200,000 for single taxpayers). In 2020, Congress approximately doubled the size of the Child Tax Credit again (there was no accompanying change to the phase-out) temporarily to alleviate financial difficulties brought on by the COVID pandemic. The temporary expansion expired in 2023, bringing the amount of the credit back to 2019 levels. This coincided with a spike in child poverty rates from under 6% in 2022 to over 12% in 2023. Prominent politicians from both parties supported making the expansion of the Child Tax Credit permanent, but, at an estimated cost of $1.6