#RecoverGA Digital Day of Action Toolkit

Congress is finalizing legislation meant to support recovery for Georgia and the entire country. GBPI will lead a digital day of action on Thursday, June 3, for Georgians and organizations statewide to join together in demanding our federal lawmakers build the most secure safety net they can with these recovery plans.

Key safety net provisions include extending the Child Tax Credit expansion, expanding child care subsidies and providing premium tax credits for marketplace health care. This day of action will urge Congress to approve these provisions and also maximize recovery by making the Child Tax Credit expansion permanent, updating our outdated Unemployment Insurance system and supporting other policies that put the needs of people first.

Our goal is to have Georgians and organizations statewide share their voices and urge lawmakers to support long-term recovery measures that help every family prosper. That includes making the full Child Tax Credit expansion permanent, updating our outdated Unemployment Insurance system and supporting other policies that put the needs of people first.

Below you will find talking points, social media posts and graphics you can use to help advocate for a better safety net for Georgians. Be sure to include the hashtag #RecoverGA. We want as many Georgians as possible to write to their federal lawmakers and tell them to maximize recovery plans. You can send a quick letter via our Action Network page, or easily look up your lawmaker’s contact info here.

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Twitter

• Click to Tweet: Congress can improve the lives of Georgians in every community and put our state on a path to an equitable recovery by approving provisions proposed in both the American Families Plan and American Jobs Plan. Tell your lawmaker to act now: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Click to Tweet: Congress should build on federal relief proposals to create a stronger safety net — one where everyone has health coverage, where all our children have the support they need to thrive, and where all our families can make ends meet. https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Click to Tweet: The #ChildTaxCredit expansion reduces poverty, benefits more than 5 million Georgians and improves racial equity, as child poverty rates are highest among Black, Indigenous and Latinx children. Tell Congress to make this expansion permanent: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Click to Tweet: 270,000 Georgians make too much to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to get premium tax credits to afford health care. Permanently expanding premium tax credits makes coverage more affordable for people who buy insurance on their own. https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Click to Tweet: Congress should make the American Rescue Plan’s expansions of the #ChildTaxCredit and #EITC permanent to cut child poverty nearly in half, boost incomes for low-paid working Georgians and strengthen our safety net. https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Click to Tweet: Black & Hispanic/Latinx Georgians are still submitting the highest levels of unemployment claims. Unemployment Insurance reforms must factor in the inequities these groups continue to face in the labor market. Tell Congress to act now: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Click to Tweet: The American Rescue Plan expands subsidies to make child care more affordable. Ask Congress to prioritize affordable, accessible child care for every community to ensure families have options when they return to work. https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA

Facebook/Instagram

• The provisions in the federal recovery plans are exactly the kind of people-centric policies that will address inequities faced by people of color and women, bolster safety net options for Georgians struggling to make ends meet, jumpstart recovery and then foster a new era of prosperity for all. Tell your lawmaker to support these relief plans and to make solutions like the expansion of the Child Tax Credit permanent. Write to them now: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• We need Congress to make health care accessible to all, help families make ends meet and give children the support they need to thrive. Federal recovery plans offer an ambitious recovery agenda that would advance economic security for Georgia’s families statewide. Congress must not only support the recovery plans but also additional solutions to help our families recover and prosper. Tell your lawmakers to maximize these recovery plans and strengthen our safety net now: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Georgia has an estimated 500,000 children living in poverty, with families across the state struggling to make ends meet. Making permanent the American Rescue Plan’s temporary expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit can raise incomes, help Georgia families achieve financial security and strengthen our safety net. Tell your lawmaker to support making these recovery solutions permanent: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• The cost of child care is higher than many families can afford. Quality, affordable child care should be available in every Georgia community. Ask Congress to approve child care subsidies included in the American Rescue Plan and push for further investments in these programs across the country to ensure families have options when they return to work. https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• Black & Hispanic/Latinx Georgians are still submitting the highest levels of unemployment claims. Unemployment Insurance reforms must factor in the inequities these groups continue to face in the labor market. Tell Congress to act now and strengthen our safety net: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA
• The COVID-19 forced families in every Georgia community to turn to our state’s safety net for help. To ensure Georgians are not only able to recover from this pandemic, but also thrive, Congress should:
  • Expand health coverage and make it more affordable.
  • Cut child poverty nearly in half and boost incomes for low-paid working Georgians by making permanent the temporary expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit.
  • Build a foundation for economic success by expanding child care and nutrition programs so people can meet basic needs.
  • Fix our outdated Unemployment Insurance system.
• Tell your lawmaker to support these recovery plans now: https://bit.ly/3hDFSmQ #RecoverGA

Talking Points

• Our federal lawmakers face an unprecedented opportunity to transform our economy so that it works for every Georgian. The provisions in the federal recovery plans are exactly the kind of people-centric policies that will address inequities faced by people of color and women, bolster safety net options for people struggling to make ends meet, jumpstart recovery and then foster a new era of prosperity for all. By advancing the proposals laid out in the recovery plans and looking for other opportunities to support economic justice, lawmakers can boost resiliency and opportunity for Georgia families.
• With the American Jobs Plan and American Families plan, the President has proposed an ambitious recovery agenda that would advance economic security for Georgia’s families and ensure that, when times are hard, a safety net of supports exist.
• Now, Congress should seize this chance to build on these proposals to build a more equitable economy — one where everyone has health coverage and can get the care they need, where all our children have the support they need to thrive and where all our families can make ends meet.
• Specifically, Congress should:
  • Expand health coverage and make it more affordable. They can do this by closing the Medicaid coverage gap for the 270,000 Georgians who make too much to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to get premium tax credits on healthcare.gov and making permanent the American Rescue Plan’s premium tax credit expansions, which help make coverage more affordable for people who buy insurance on their own.
  • Cut child poverty nearly in half and boost incomes for low-paid working people by making permanent the Rescue Plan’s temporary expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. The expansion of the EITC will improve economic security for over 600,000 workers with low wages who are not raising children.
  • Build a foundation for economic success by expanding child care and nutrition programs so people can meet basic needs, and by fixing our outdated unemployment insurance system.

• To fund our future and the investments that would help build an economy that works for all of us, wealthy households and corporations must pay their fair share of federal taxes. This plan helps rebalance the tax code by:
  • More fairly taxing those who earn over $1 million per year on investments;
  • Closing various tax loopholes, including the loophole that allows the wealthiest earners to avoid paying taxes on unrealized capital gains;
  • Raising the corporate tax rate; and
  • Bolstering the IRS with sufficient resources to begin recapturing hundreds of millions of dollars in under-reported and unpaid taxes that should be due to the federal government.

• Although the plan is strong, Congress can play a key role in maximizing the plan’s potential and ensuring adequate economic support by:
  • Making the full Child Tax Credit expansion included in the American Rescue Plan permanent, rather than temporary, to further reduce child poverty;
  • Pursuing an unemployment insurance system that is more responsive to the labor market during economic downturns; including automatic triggers that automatically expand unemployment insurance programs and eligibility when labor market measures, such as disaggregated unemployment rates, reach a certain threshold. These automatically triggered eligibility and program benefit expansions would address the needs of Black and Latinx workers, who have historically been restricted by systemically racist eligibility requirements that disproportionately exclude them from the UI safety net.
  • Further incentivizing states like Georgia that have not yet fully expanded Medicaid;
  • Making permanent the improved access to SNAP for college students; and
  • Ensuring policies are immigrant-inclusive.

• We cannot miss this moment to build a better safety net for families in need of support. It’s time for Congress to deliver what all our families deserve.

Key Data by Issue

Hardship in Georgia

Hardship rates at the end of February were very high.

• 868,000 (13%) adults reported that their household did not have enough to eat
• 439,000 (16%) of adults living with children report their household did not have enough to eat
• 676,000 (28%) of Georgia adults in rental housing report they’re not caught up on rent
• 7 million (37%) of Georgia adults have difficulty covering usual household expenses
• 319,000 Georgians currently receiving unemployment benefits

Medicaid Expansion

• Georgia is one of 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid
• Medicaid expansion over the next two years would cost only about $336 million when we account for the new revenue and savings generated by covering more people.
• However, Georgia would receive between $1.4 and $1.9 billion in two years for our existing Medicaid program if we expand. These savings can be used to help pay for our share of Medicaid expansion and the remainder could go to funding Georgia schools, strengthening our rural broadband or public health systems or funding many other state priorities.
• Medicaid expansion would create an estimated 64,000 jobs in Georgia

Unemployment Insurance

• Although many industries are starting to hire again, in April, unemployment claims rose by 11 percent for women while declining by 2 percent for men.
• In that same month, unemployment claims for Black Georgians were 35 percent higher than those of all other filers and 54 percent higher than those of white Georgians alone.
• From mid-March 2020 to now, 4.6 million Georgians have turned to unemployment insurance

Child Tax Credit

• National Bureau of Economic Research estimated last year that most children living in the bottom 10 percent of incomes were “completely ineligible” for the usual, non-expanded credit and that the bottom 30 percent could receive only a partial credit.
• About 470,000 Black Georgians under 17 are left out of the usual $2,000 child tax credit because their families’ incomes are too low, compared with 274,000 white Georgia children.
• Poverty projections under the American Rescue Plan, which initially expanded the CTC, from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University illustrate sharp reductions in poverty:
  • Reduces total poverty from 13.6% to 5.9%
  • Reduces child poverty from 15.1% to 5.9%
  • Reduces Black poverty from 21.8% to 12.1%
  • Reduces Latinx poverty from 21.8% to 11.4%
  • Reduces white poverty from 9.2% to 6.7%
  • Reduces Asian poverty from 13.6% to 9.7%
• An estimated 1 million children in Georgia will benefit from the expansion of the CTC, with nearly 700,000 lifted near or above the poverty line (272,000 lifted above the poverty line)

Write a Letter to the Editor

A letter to the editor of your local newspaper is an excellent way to make your voice heard regarding your support for raising revenues or any other issue in Georgia. Letters to the editor are short (ideally 250-300 words), simple and, whenever possible, reflect your personal reasons for supporting policies, whether you or a loved one would benefit, your religious/moral views align with the bill, or the bill affects you as a taxpayer.

You can send a letter via U.S. Mail or via email. If you send it via mail, address it to your newspaper of choice. If you send it via email, please put LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the subject line. In the body of the email you may write:

Hello, I am writing to submit a letter to the editor regarding the importance of simplifying Georgia’s voting processes. The letter is attached and below for your consideration.

Thank you,

Your Name

Your Title or Occupation (if applicable)

Your City/State Your Phone Number

**PASTE LETTER BELOW**

You may send a letter to any newspaper in Georgia. Contact information is often available on a newspaper’s website.

Here are two examples:

To the Editor:

Right now, Congress is finalizing details of legislation meant to support long-term recovery for Georgia families. These plans are based on the American Families and Jobs Plans put forth by the Biden administration.  The provisions in the federal recovery plans are exactly the kind of people-centric policies that will address inequities faced by people of color and women, bolster safety net options for people struggling to make ends meet, jumpstart recovery and then foster a new era of prosperity for all.

However, hardship in Georgia is still high, and there are opportunities to better improve the plans. For example, the current proposal only temporarily expands the Child Tax Credit. The expansion would nearly cut childhood poverty in half—and a permanent expansion would provide longer-term support to children and their families. Federal lawmakers must also look for ways to finally push states like Georgia to expand Medicaid and truly support unemployed workers.

Georgia’s Congressional delegation must not only support the recovery plans, but also these additional opportunities to help our families recover and prosper.

Your Name

Your Title or Occupation (if applicable)

Your City/Town

To the Editor:

As Congress finalizes legislation meant to jumpstart recovery from COVID-19, Georgia’s delegation must look for opportunities to strengthen the safety net so that every family can thrive.

Georgia has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. [Include a personal anecdote or story from your community.]

Although the plans the Biden administration proposed are strong, there are opportunities to better advance recovery. For example, as the state withdraws from federal unemployment programs, and as workers—especially workers of color and women—continue to face barriers to employment, it is even more critical the federal legislation helps ensure Georgia workers can access unemployment insurance. Federal lawmakers should also consider additional incentives to help convince state leaders to expand Medicaid and permanently expand the Child Tax Credit to cut child poverty in half.

Georgia’s Congressional delegation must not only support the recovery plans, but also these additional opportunities to help our families recover and prosper.

Your Name

Your Title or Occupation (if applicable)

Your City/Town

Press Release From Your Organization

Below, please find an example of a press release you can send about the American Families and Jobs Plans. We’ve bolded areas you or your organization should personalize. Please also adjust as needed to fit your organization’s voice and priorities.

RELEASE: Federal Recovery Plans Critical for Georgians’ Prosperity

[Home city]— As discussions unfold regarding the President’s proposed American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, organization name released the following statement urging Georgia’s federal delegation to take this opportunity to enact a recovery package that builds an economy where everyone has access to affordable health coverage and housing; where workers in low-paid jobs and those with fewer job prospects have the supports to help them get by and get ahead; where all children can reach their full potential; and where corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.

Choose 1 statement or draft your own!

“Hardship in Georgia is still high, as some communities struggle to access vaccines, child care and jobs that pay a living wage,” said [Title & Name]. “The federal recovery plans provide an opportunity to help every Georgia family recover from this pandemic while laying the groundwork for long-term prosperity in our state. Georgia’s federal lawmakers should wholeheartedly support and build on the proposed plans to expand health coverage, support the economic wellbeing of our families and cut child poverty in half.”

“Georgia families need a robust safety net when times are hard—whether because of a pandemic, a recession, job loss or another issue,” said [Title & Name]. “The recovery plans being considered in Congress would help our families access child care assistance, health care coverage and nutrition support so that families do not have to worry about putting food on the table or affording other necessities. Georgia’s delegation should support these measures as well as improvements to Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid and the Child Tax Credit so that every family can recover from this pandemic and thrive.”

The President’s recovery proposals include many important policies to create a stronger and more equitable economy. But Congress will need to address shortcomings in certain areas and add more details to the broad outlines that the President has put forward. We believe the policies outlined below represent the most critical in creating an equitable and effective recovery as well as those policies most in need of congressional attention. Each of these proposals would have a significant impact in reducing racial income, housing, and health care disparities.

Specifically, Congress should:

• Expand health coverage and make it more affordable. They can do this by closing the Medicaid coverage gap for the 270,000 Georgians who make too much to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to get premium tax credits on healthcare.gov and making permanent the American Rescue Plan’s premium tax credit expansions, which help make coverage more affordable for people who buy insurance on their own.
• Cut child poverty nearly in half and boost incomes for low-paid working people by making permanent the Rescue Plan’s temporary expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. The expansion of the EITC will improve economic security for over 600,000 workers with low wages who are not raising children.
• Build a foundation for economic success by expanding child care and nutrition programs so people can meet basic needs, and by fixing our outdated unemployment insurance system.

To fund our future and the investments that would help build an economy that works for all of us, Congress must also support measures to ensure wealthy households and corporations pay their fair share of federal taxes.

Although the plan is strong, Congress can play a key role in maximizing the plan’s potential and ensuring adequate economic support by:

• Making the full Child Tax Credit expansion included in the American Rescue Plan permanent, rather than temporary, to further reduce child poverty;
• Pursuing an unemployment insurance system that is more responsive to the labor market during economic downturns; including automatic triggers that automatically expand unemployment insurance programs and eligibility when labor market measures, such as disaggregated unemployment rates, reach a certain threshold. These automatically triggered eligibility and program benefit expansions would address the needs of Black and Latinx workers, who have historically been restricted by systemically racist eligibility requirements that disproportionately exclude them from the UI safety net.
• Further incentivizing states like Georgia that have not yet fully expanded Medicaid;
• Making permanent the improved access to SNAP for college students; and
• Ensuring policies are immigrant-inclusive.

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