Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the signing of the American Rescue Plan. Ted Budd, Pat McCrory, and Mark Walker have all made their opposition clear and will have to explain to voters this year why they would have voted against legislation that lowered costs for working families in North Carolina, while their party leaders introduce plans to raise taxes and hike health insurance premiums.
“On the one-year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan, the contrast couldn’t be more clear,” said NCDP spokesperson Kate Frauenfelder. “While Democrats are fighting to lower costs for the middle class, the Republican Party is running on raising taxes and making health care more expensive. North Carolinians literally cannot afford Ted Budd, Pat McCrory, and Mark Walker rubber stamping their party’s toxic agenda.”
Here’s exactly what the GOP Senate candidates opposed, by the numbers:
- 1,188,000 North Carolina families with 1,968,000 children received tax cuts from the American Rescue Plan’s expanded Child Tax Credit, which averaged to $436 a month per family, totaling more than $2.99 billion in tax cuts in 2021.
- $183.3 million in FY2022 for home energy assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which saw its funding double because of the American Rescue Plan.
- Over 670,000 people are now seeing reduced health care costs through the Health Insurance Marketplace, and coverage saw a 25% increase since the American Rescue Plan passed.
- Approximately $432 million for community colleges and over $307 million for 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities
- $258 million in Emergency Rental Assistance Program funding from April to November of 2021, helping 4,211 households afford rent and pay bills because of the American Rescue Plan.
- $1.31 billion in 2021 from Child Care Development Fund allocations and child care stabilization funding through the American Rescue Plan.
- 5,250,385 economic impact payments from the American Rescue Plan, each worth up to $1,400 per person and totaling more than $12.6 billion went to North Carolinians as of June 2021
- $5.44 billion in funding in state and local government fiscal recovery fund allocations from the American Rescue Plan.
- $3.6 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding to help North Carolina schools safely remain open during the pandemic.
- $161,988,125 in funding to 39 health centers to expand vaccinations, testing and treatment efforts for COVID-19.
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