Ruben Gallego misleads on Kari Lake opposing the child tax credit portion of 2021 spending package

Arizona’s U.S. Senate debate between Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Republican candidate Kari Lake on Oct. 9 reached its zenith over abortion, a top issue in the swing state. 

Lake, who broadly supports abortion restrictions, redirected the conversation to abortion alternatives, voicing her support for expanding the child tax credit. Gallego raised questions about her record.

Gallego said that Lake opposed the one-year child tax credit expansion in the Democratic-backed American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. 

"We should make sure we continue with some of the great work we did with the child tax credit that brought childhood poverty down by 60% which, by the way, Kari Lake was against when the bill was on the floor," Gallego said.

The claim is misleading. Lake opposed the American Rescue Plan, but she did not single out the child tax credit expansion.

The federal child tax credit reduces tax liability for families with children, and the American Rescue Plan increased the claimable amount in 2021 from $2,000 per child age 16 or younger to $3,600 per child younger than 6 and up to $3,000 for children age 6 to 17. The credit was also fully refundable, meaning low-income families qualified regardless of how much they earned in household income, according to the Tax Policy Center. The tax credit expired in December 2021. 

We didn’t find evidence that Lake spoke out against the credit or the bill as the bill was being considered. Lawmakers discussed the bill on the House floor March 10, 2021; we didn’t find Lake criticizing the bill around that time in our search for public statements and her social media accounts. Lake stepped down from her TV anchor position March 2, 2021, and announced her run for governor of Arizona in June. 

When we asked the Gallego campaign for evidence, a spokesperson pointed to Lake’s Sept. 25 housing press conference and a 2022 interview where she criticized government spending. She specifically mentioned neither the American Rescue Plan nor its child tax credit expansion. 

In a June 2024 X post, Lake criticized Gallego’s vote for the American Rescue Plan because it sent stimulus checks to prisoners.

During the Oct. 9 debate, Lake blamed high living costs on the spending package, saying it "actually sent us spiraling and put our economy on life support."  PolitiFact has found that the American Rescue Plan likely exacerbated the record inflation of June 2022, but it was not the only or largest factor.

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Lake has supported expanding child tax credits to incentivize women to carry pregnancies to term. 

In May, Lake told the Washington Examiner that the child tax credit needs to be enough to help people grow families and support the U.S. birth rate. In April — after the Arizona Supreme Court held a near-total abortion ban in the state that is no longer in effect — Lake’s campaign released a statement showing her support for "extending the child tax credit." In a 2023 interview with Arizona’s Family, Lake said she supports reducing tax liability for families with children via "baby bonuses," citing the policy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. 

A statement to PolitiFact from the Lake campaign said, "We've checked around and Kari Lake has never criticized child tax credit expansion. She has always been in support of it."

During the Arizona U.S. Senate debate, Gallego said Lake "was against" the child tax credit expansion put forth by Congress in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 "when the bill was on the floor."

Lake criticized parts of the American Rescue Plan, blaming the one-time spending package for raising living costs and condemning it for sending stimulus checks to prisoners. However, she did not directly criticize the child tax credit expansion and has voiced support for reducing tax liability for families with children during her Senate campaign.

Lake also did not criticize the American Rescue Plan on March 10, the day lawmakers voted on it in the House. 

We rate this claim Mostly False.