If someone asked me what the best thing President Biden and the 117th Congress has accomplished was, there is a good chance I would say the one-year child tax credit (CTC) expansion that was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief legislation.

That being said, if someone asked me the worst thing that President Biden and the 117th Congress has done — or failed to do — it would be their failure to extend the Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion. While my headline might be considered slightly misleading, it is also 100% accurate; Democrats’ failure to extend the CTC expansion has already led to 3.7 million children falling back into poverty— a 41% increase in the child poverty rate from 12.1% to 17%.

In a normal year, the CTC gave parents $2,000 in tax relief per dependent, but in 2021, the CTC was expanded to give parents up to $3,600 in tax relief. From July to Dec 2021, $250 per child (or $300 for children under six) was sent out to parents on the 15th of each month as an advance on their 2021 returns. These payments functioned as a miniature version of a universal basic income specifically for parents. These payments weren’t sent out on January 15 or February 15; this is a moral failure on the part of our policymakers, and it shouldn’t go unmentioned, even if it is the fault of politicians with whom I more regularly align.

Regular readers of my column should not be surprised by my stance on basic income-like measures; I’m a huge fan. The best way to reduce poverty is to give people money, and the best group of people to reduce — or eradicate — poverty for is young people. The CTC expansion did just that; it is estimated to have cut child poverty by 45%. But these monthly payments are no longer going out to families, meaning the Democrats’ great job of decreasing child poverty was only a temporary measure.

I recently wrote a column on why we should pay our politicians more. Admittedly, that was one of my more controversial opinions. I have a feeling that this one is less controversial, but somehow still under-discussed. We need to pay parents more, just for being parents. They have the most important jobs in the world. Why don’t we act like it, at least a little?

Just as I said in my previous column, we as a society should recognize our most important jobs and decide to pay them more; this is how we become a better society as a whole. I don’t have kids, and I likely won’t have any anytime soon — still, I will reap the benefits if others’ kids are ensured to live a life above the poverty line at least until the time they hit 18 years old.

Though I have reservations with much of the rhetoric the Republican Party offers, I agree with them on at least one thing: families are extremely important. But they deserve some of the blame here, too. If the GOP is as pro-family as they claim to be, they should be on board with the Democrats’ plan to extend the CTC expansion, or, at the very least, have a sufficient counter-proposal to bring to the table.

The one-year CTC expansion should serve as proof that our government can successfully pull children out of poverty. The fact that President Biden and the 117th Congress — yes, both Democrats and Republicans — have failed to do this for more than a year should be a massive disappointment for everyone. We can, and should, do better for our young people. A permanent expansion of the CTC would be a great first step.