Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina One of the more vexing problems President JOE BIDEN has faced in office is how to translate his policy accomplishments into political gain. The next few weeks may present a new complication from the other side of the coin: What happens to those voters who did feel an impact from Biden’s policies if they see that impact diminished or taken away? At issue is the extended child tax credit, which was initially passed in the Covid-19 relief bill. It provided a $300 payment per month for every child under the age of seven and a $250-per-month payment for every child under the age of 17, so long as they lived in married households earning less than $150,000 annually. The program is set to expire in December and Democrats are hoping to extend it as part of the Build Back Better package. Like most elements of that package, however, the party’s initial hopes for the program are likely to be scaled back. Talks are focusing on a one-year extension rather than four years. And SEN. JOE MANCHIN has called for a tighter income cap on those who can benefit, as well as work requirements for recipients, which Biden has publicly opposed. For recipients of the CTC, this is creating an immense amount of anxiety, confusion, and despondence. In interviews, tax credit recipients — all but one of whom self-identified as a Democrat — explained the myriad of ways that the expansion reshaped their lives and offered their disillusionment that Democrats would muck it up. Take JAKE WRIGHT, 40, of Rochester, Minn. The new child tax credit benefit helped pay for child care for his two sons, ages four and two. Both he and his wife are teachers. And being back in the classroom has meant an added level of inflexibility around childcare. The Manchin proposal, Wright said, would result in them losing $600 in monthly CTC payments. “I’ve been a Democrat my entire adult life, but letting a program expire… or means testing it so that people who will genuinely benefit from it will lose out on much needed help infuriates me,” he said. “It makes me wonder why I bother supporting these people. I’m angry about this issue in a way I haven’t been with the Democratic Party, especially Manchin and [Arizona Sen. KYRSTEN] SINEMA, for as long as I can remember.” KELLY JOHNSON, 48, of Whitesboro, N.Y., has three children ages 15, 14 and 10. Her husband died unexpectedly in May at the age of 50, and with his passing came the loss of a large source of the family’s income. She’s used the CTC money for groceries and sporting gear for her kids. A $1,000 check in October is being put aside for Christmas presents. She’s a staunch Democrat and will vote for Biden again. “But I just don’t understand why if the government could help families live better that people wouldn’t support that,” Johnson said. DAN SMITH, 37, is a programs counselor at SUNY. He is divorced with two kids, one of whom he claims on his taxes. He’s used the CTC expansion to increase his contributions for both children’s 529 college savings accounts. The money hasn’t had a “huge impact” on his life, he says. But it’s given him the chance to do some long-term planning. “It just goes to show who both parties are,” Smith said. “You have the Republican Party who flat out says we don’t want to do anything to help working class Americans... And then you have the Democratic Party, which should be set up to do the most basic things that could help the American people in unprecedented times, a pandemic, and they’re like, ‘No we can’t do that.’” CHRISTOPHER ROSE, an adjunct English professor at Baylor University, has two kids, ages four and two. The CTC funds helped him and his wife, an OBGYN, pay for childcare, which was critical when their daycare shut down due to a Covid incident in August and early September. He said he wouldn’t mind if the extension expired were the pandemic under control. But it isn’t. “I’m a pretty reliable Democratic voter, but my perception of Biden would change if he can’t get a bill through at all,” he said. And then there is JASON H. (he asked that his last name not be used) from Chattanooga. Thirty-nine years of age, both he and his wife work in health care. Specifically, he is a respiratory therapist in his hospital’s Covid ICU. He has two boys, ages two and three (“zero stars, do not recommend,” he said of spacing out the progeny by just one year). The CTC isn’t essential for the family’s survival. But it is providing a measure of certainty in a deeply uncertain time. “We all crave a return to ‘normalcy’ but what that means to many is consistency, predictability,” he said. “I don't ‘need’ that money. But I do need to know whether it will be there or not.” It remains to be seen what the final deal will be on the extended Child Tax Credit, if a deal is reached at all. Clearer is the impact that the extension has had. Researchers at Columbia University estimated that if it was extended through its duration, the program could “reduce monthly child poverty by up to 40 percent.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you SARAH SCHEINMAN, deputy associate counsel for the office of presidential personnel? 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