GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance Sunday called for expanding the child tax credit to $5,000 as part of a push for a more pro-family policy and blamed the Biden-Harris administration for not getting the legislation to make that happen pass.
The Ohio Republican senator told CBS' "Face the Nation" that both he and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump believe in expanded child tax credits and want to get it done.
"The child tax credit has languished thanks to the Biden administration, because [Kamala] Harris has failed to show fundamental leadership," Vance told show host Margaret Brennan. "Chuck Schumer has been unable to get it through the U.S. Senate, and we want to have a more pro-family policy."
Currently, the tax credit is $2,000 a child, but Vance said he wants it raised to $5,000, but work would have to be done with Congress to see how viable that is.
He also said that parents should pay lower taxes through the child tax credit, but "the Harris administration immediately jumped and said we disagree with this. So do they want the elimination of the child tax credit? Or were they just being careless in responding to remarks I made three years ago?"
The current tax credit is for families that earn $400,000 or below, but Vance said he wants a "broad-based family policy" and tax credit.
"President Trump has been on the record for a long time supporting a bigger child tax credit, and I think you want it to apply to all American families," he said.
Vance said the campaign also wants expanded access to child care, including allowing credits for family members who stay home to take care of their children.
"If you've got grandparents who are at home taking care of the kids, I think they deserve to be treated the same way as other family models by their government," he said, adding that the proposal includes all families, including those with same-sex parents.
Vance, also appearing on ABC News' "This Week" Sunday, also discussed another vital policy to Americans: immigration, and said that a second Trump administration would accomplish its goal of mass deportation of as many as 20 million immigrants through a "sequential approach."
"I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem," he said. "I think it's interesting that people focus on, Well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let's start with 1 million. That's where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there."