2020 tax credit proposals would substantially reduce poverty in the United States

Reducing poverty and inequality is developing into a central issue in the conversation around the 2020 presidential election. This brief contributes to this conversation by simulating the potential impacts of various policy proposals put forward by 2020 candidates, including estimated costs, anti-poverty effects, and distributional implications of proposed plans. All of the proposals that we simulate here involve new or expanded benefits administered through the tax system. We find that each of the five proposals makes a considerable dent in the poverty rate, though impacts vary across different populations and by the estimated costs and targeting of each proposal.