‘McConnell Thinks What This Country Needs Is More Hungry Children’: James Carville Slams Opposition to Child Tax Credit

James Carville appeared on The Beat with Ari Melber and ripped Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his opposition to the expanded child tax care credit. Most families making less than $150,000 a year currently receive $300 monthly payments per child. McConnell has called the measure a “monthly welfare deposit.”

The payments will expire at the end of December if Congress does not vote to extend them. According to CNBC, “In just a few months of families receiving payments, data showed how the enhanced child tax credit helped. Financial instability fell, more children had enough to eat and some parents were even able to work more.”

“Boy, have a lot of children been lifted out of poverty this year,” said Melber. “I went through the numbers. Now, today McConnell says be careful of this toddler takeover. Your response?”

As usual, Carville didn’t hold back.

“Well, I mean I guess McConnell thinks what this country needs is more hungry children,” he replied. “I don’t… I celebrate the rise of children out of poverty. I celebrate the wonderful year we’ve had in job creation this year. I celebrate the vaccine distributions, the therapeutics. I celebrate the fact that we’re no longer in America’s longest war. So we have a lot of things to be thankful for over these holidays.”

He added that the child tax credits “lifted people out of poverty.”

“It gave hourly workers more power and more say over their lives than they’ve had at any time in recent memory,” said Carville. “We’ve got to remember that. We have people that feel confident enough in this economy that if they’ve got a bad job or they’re being harassed on the job, they can quit and find another job. That is a major accomplishment.”

Carville said that although many of the children benefitting from the payments can’t vote, they will appreciate them nonetheless.

“I guarantee you, these kids that go to bed with a full stomach as opposed to being hungry, they may not be able to vote for you, but they appreciate it,” he said.

The House has already approved extending the tax credits when it passed President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which faces tough climb in the Senate.

Watch above via MSNBC.