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Brian: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Know, we've been doing our series West Farms 10460, about that neighborhood in that zip code in the Bronx, especially hard-hit by COVID and parts of it in the poorest congressional district in America. In November, the city council member from around there was elected to Congress, and Ritchie Torres has already made his presence felt as one of the leaders in the drive to get arguably the most historic piece of the COVID relief bill into the legislation, the one that we were just hearing about in the newscast. Now, we played this clip on the show yesterday of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, calling the bill.

Jen Psaki: One of the most consequential and most progressive pieces of legislation in American history.

Brian: One of the reasons why, maybe the biggest reason why, is the monthly payments to most American families with children, $300 a month for each child under six years old, $250 a month for ages 6 to 17, something Congressman Torres had said could significantly reduce child poverty in the poorest congressional district in America, and something like many European countries have had for a long time with their lower child poverty rates compared to ours. With us now is freshmen congressmen, Ritchie Torres, former city council member, and US representative for District 15 in the Bronx. He joins me now, Representative Torres, welcome back to WNYC.

Representative Ritchie Torres: Always an honor to be here.

Brian: Can you briefly expound on that idea? What are the main bullet points? Who qualifies and what effect will it have? I want you to localize this, because we've been hearing about it nationally. What effect will it have on the pocketbooks of families, on the children, in the families, in West Farms 10460, and elsewhere in your district

Representative Torres: As you noted, the centerpiece of the American Rescue Plan is the expanded child tax credit, which would cut child poverty in half. It's often said that the South Bronx, which includes West Farms is the poorest congressional district in America. There is no single policy that would do more to lift the South Bronx out of poverty than an expansion of the child tax credit.

The original structure of the tax credit left behind a third of American families, the poorest families in the country, about 27 million children, and no community was more left behind than the South Bronx where two-thirds of families were excluded from the full benefit of the tax credit. By expanding the child tax credit, we're creating a safety net that will benefit 69 million children, 93% of all children in the United States. Families in need will receive up to $250 a month per child, as well as $300 a month per child under the age of six.

The expansion of the child tax credit is essentially a reoccurring stimulus check. It's essentially a basic income for families with children. We have managed to implement a basic income in a reoccurring stimulus check without most Americans realizing it.

Brian: I have a stat that was on the station earlier this morning of 370,000 children living in poverty in New York city, 370,000, just in New York City, living under the poverty line, children, do you have an estimate as to how many of those will no longer be living under the poverty line as a result of this one provision?

Representative Torres: We know that it will benefit 3.7 million children in New York State, so it's going to have a transformative effect on the city, and the state, and people should realize that child poverty in America is expensive. It comes at a high cost to the early development of children and it comes at a high cost to the American economy. According to the National Academies of Engineering, Sciences, and Medicine, child poverty costs the American economy up to a trillion dollars in lost economic growth.

As far as I'm concerned, the expanded child tax credit is the greatest progressive achievement since the Affordable Care Act. The expanded child tax credit will do for children what social security and Medicare did for senior citizens. It will end extreme poverty for the most vulnerable Americans.

Brian: I know it's just a one-year bill for now and that you and others are going to fight to make it permanent next year. That's probably going to set up some lines of debate for the 2022 congressional elections, which is going to be fascinating, I think, if people are running for and against this anti-child poverty measure so we'll see what happens with that next year, but beyond that, do you have other anti-poverty bills intended to address the needs of the people of West Farms 10460 and elsewhere in your district?

It's a disgrace to the nation that we've called that district the poorest in America for decades when there's so much wealth right nearby, just in New York City, but also in the nation as a whole. Can you coming in, as Mr. Torres goes to Washington, do anything to change the basic narrative of poverty not being seriously addressed, past this one bill?

Representative Torres: That's the hope. As you said, I'm one of the lead sponsors of the American Family Act, which would make permanent the expansion of the child tax credit, and President Biden has come out in favor of a permanent expansion, deeply committed to the notion of housing as a human right. I'm going to fight for, what I call, housing vouchers for all so that no family in need pays no more than 30% of their income toward their rent. In the weeks to come, I intend to announce a digital equity bill that I hope will be included in the infrastructure package.

Especially during COVID, there were thousands of families that had no electronic tablet at home, that had no Wi-Fi access, that had no means of learning remotely during the outbreak, and so the inequality that was brought most painfully to light was the digital divide, which I'm going to seek to address in the weeks to come.

For me, the American Rescue Plan tells a larger story about the Democratic Party. Ronald Reagan famously said that government is not the solution, government is the problem, and Bill Clinton famously said that the era of big government is over. The American Rescue Plan demonstrates that the Democratic Party has transformed itself, that we are no longer the party of welfare reform, we are the party of families and children. We have returned home. We have returned to our roots as the party of FDR, and that's exactly where we should be.

Brian: You mentioned the housing vouchers that you would like to see get through limiting rent to 30% of a family's income. We talked about the child allowance, of course, and another thing in the relief bill that I think hasn't gotten enough attention is an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, to limit the amount that a family pays in health insurance premiums to 8.5% of a family or a person's income.

That used to be only up to $50,000 of income, now they've expanded it, I think up to $99,000 of income, so that makes healthcare more affordable for a lot of middle-class families in America, who weren't buying into the Obamacare plans, even if they didn't get health insurance through work, because it was out of reach for them. That's another example of what you were just describing as the new direction of the Democratic Party, a guaranteed income or guaranteed expense limit, that's part of Biden era, new New Deal. Is that a good way to look at it?

Representative Torres: The American Rescue Plan is part of a 21st century New Deal, with a particular emphasis on racial equity. As you know, the original New Deal systematically excluded people of color from home ownership and higher education. I think of the American Rescue Plan, I think of the Biden agenda as a 21st century New Deal, with an emphasis on racial equity.

Brian: Fascinating. We will see how this develops in Congress, and what kind of partisan debates develop around, this but I think this has been an important conversation, which we're almost out of time for, for people to understand the broader context of the COVID relief bill. This is why Republicans criticized it though. Mitch McConnell and others are out there saying this is a liberal wishlist, not just COVID relief. You're saying yes, but this is the debate the country needs to have, now, we're starting to have it. Would that be fair?

Representative Torres: Yes, but it's worth noting that the child tax credit commands bicameral, bipartisan support, and for me, COVID is not simply a public health crisis, it's an economic crisis. We're living in what I call an FDR moment, and we should harness the power of this moment to achieve the eradication of extreme poverty in America, and to lift working people, and that's precisely what we've done with the American Rescue Plan.

Brian: We leave it there for today with freshman congressmen, Ritchie Torres, representing West Farms 10460 and elsewhere in New York's 15th congressional district in the Bronx. Thanks so much for joining us.

Representative Torres: Always a pleasure, take care.

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