Originally posted on CBC News.

Biden campaigned on more generous family policy — paid parental leave, which, unlike other industrialized countries, the U.S. lacks; universal pre-kindergarten; and a child-tax credit similar to Canada’s.

Manchin had it chopped from the budget bill. He initially supported more spending but balked at the cost as negotiations wore on. It was a dispiriting development to people working with low-income families.

Allison Bovell-Ammon said her colleagues witnessed the effect of a child-tax credit in the brief months it existed, part of a temporary pandemic-relief bill. She said it alleviated patient malnutrition rates at the Boston Medical Center, affiliated with her research group Children’s HealthWatch.

“We had the moment, and the opportunity, to make real change [for struggling families],” Bovell-Ammon said in an interview.

“We’re deeply disappointed in these missed opportunities.”

She said federal data shows that food insufficiency dropped 26 per cent in the months the child tax credit existed then rose 12 per cent after it expired in December — just as families were being pounded by inflation.