[Edited for brevity - secondcor521]
Similarly with the child tax credit, everyone is thrilled it is being "expanded" even though eligibility is being restricted so that fewer people will get it. How is it an expansion of benefits when the government is saving money on it? That's a tax increase, not a tax cut!
How did we let them get away with this?
How is eligibility for the child tax credit being restricted? Everything I've seen shows the amount that is refundable is going up and the income limits being raised. is it some interplay with the earned income tax credit or something?
He's likely talking about the $2000 Child Tax Credit ends at 17, so dependents that are college age (17-24) will only get $500 credit. Not a great deal if you have a couple kids in school at the same time (and compared to current $4050 exemptions).
The Child Tax Credit has always ended at 17; the new tax bill does nothing to change that.(*)
The new tax bill increases the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000. The bill also raised - I believe quite significantly but I don't have the figures and don't feel like looking them up - the phaseout limits for the Child Tax Credit.
The new tax bill adds the new $500 dependent credit.
So the first sentence of sol's post that I left quoted above isn't accurate as far as I can tell in the sense that the Child Tax Credit itself has clearly been expanded under the new tax bill.
At the same time, it is also true that the new tax bill quite famously has eliminated all personal exemptions. For people with kids who qualify for it, the expansion in the Child Tax Credit makes up for the loss of the personal exemption for those with a (roughly) 25% tax bracket or lower. For those in a higher tax bracket, it may not make up for it; then again, those in a higher-than-25% tax bracket probably would not have been able to take the Child Tax Credit before (due to the current income phaseouts).
For parents of kids who are 17 and older who are still dependent, the new $500 credit makes up for the loss of the personal exemption for those with a (roughly) 12% tax bracket or lower. For those in a higher tax bracket, the new $500 credit is not as good as the personal exemption that they lose.
So in summary, the only people who lose are those with dependent kids who are 17 or older and who are in a higher than 12% tax bracket. Everyone else is the same or better off.
(*) There were discussions about changing the age limit, but those did not end up in the final bill. What sol in fact may be referring to is that there were discussions of raising it to 18, but then they decided to stick with 17, which is lower than what they discussed but, as noted, is exactly equal to the status quo.