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Melissa: In 1960, one in every three elderly Americans was poor. One in three. By 1995, the rate fell to below 10%. Just let that sink in for a moment. In just four swift decades, our nation slashed elder poverty, and we did it even as the proportion of older Americans grew. But let's be clear, this did not happen because older people finally decided to stop spending all their disposable income on beer and bingo. Nope. Personal responsibility and individual savings accounts do not change the economic realities of an entire population in just one generation. Transformational public policy does.

Franklin Roosevelt: We can never insure 100% of the population against 100% of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty stricken old age.

Melissa: You're listening there to President Franklin Roosevelt in August 1935, as he signed Social Security into law. The law was imperfect but transformative, and as Social Security expenditures rose, elderly poverty declined. Unfortunately, even as elder poverty declined, child poverty rose, and it rose sharply in this country. Today, nearly one in five American children currently live in poverty. That's double the rate of elderly Americans.

Yet over the decades, even as so many of America's young people struggled with the lifelong effects of poverty, lawmakers from both parties deployed the language of personal responsibility as it dramatically cut aid to families and children. Here are Vice President Al Gore and President Bill Clinton in August 1996, signing the sweeping Welfare Reform Bill.

Al Gore: The president will sign a Welfare Reform Bill and make it law. One that reinforces such core American values as work, family, individual responsibility, and community.

Bill Clinton: The new bill restores America's basic bargain of providing opportunity and demanding in return, responsibility.

Melissa: On Thursday, Vice President Harris and President Biden sounded very different as they heralded a new effort that they hope just might turn the tide on child poverty.

Vice President Harris: Let us mark this day, Thursday, July 15th 2021, as the day the American family got so much stronger. Today, the expanded Child Tax Credit is here.

President Biden: I believe this is actually a historic day. Historic day in the sense that we continue to build an economy that respects and recognizes the dignity of working class families and middle-class families

Melissa: Harris and Biden spoke even as the first payments of the Child Tax Credit, or CTC, began to show up in the bank account of American families with children. Most American families will be eligible for up to $300 per child, per month, and the money comes with no strings attached. Economists say the money could lift as many as four million children out of poverty, but it only goes so far. That's because the Child Tax Credit is part of the American rescue plan and therefore it's time limited.

Payments will end in December of this year. The urgent question facing the Biden administration is whether they can cultivate enough political will to make the policy permanent. We asked you what your thoughts were on this new policy.

Frank: This is Frank in Richmond, Virginia. We transferred the money into our son's college account. Every little bit's going to help and that boy's going to need it.

Caleb: This is Caleb from Austin, Texas. We're putting it into our child's college fund.

Renee: Hello, my name is Renee. I'm calling from Apollo Beach. We did receive our Child Tax Credit as a matter of fact, however, we still haven't received our third stimulus payment. I went ahead and had to take money out of my 401k to pay our back rent because we're still awaiting that.

Jen: Hi, this is Jen in Austin, Texas. I and many others made a personal choice not to have kids, but that doesn't mean that we don't struggle as well. I think that a universal basic income would be better.

Chris: Hi. I'm Chris. I'm from Spokane, Washington. The tax credit, the Child Tax Credit is nice. It's a nice addition to our finances. We do pretty well, but it means I can focus a little bit more on growing my businesses and finally taking the first vacation in five years. I don't have to focus so much on what I get paid from the businesses. I can just grow them and do what's right.

Julianne: Hello. My name is Julianne. I'm from Northwest lower Michigan. I'm not getting any, I am retired. However, I raised three children by myself as a single mom. It was very difficult. I remember very well how hard it was. I'm so very grateful that our government is doing something to help our families. It's crucial.

Melissa: We always love it when you talk with us. Record a voice memo and email it to takeawaycallers@gmail.com or call us at 877-869-8253. With me now is my friend Dorian Warren, co president of Community Change and co-chair of the Economic Security Project. Welcome Dorian.

Dorian Warren: Thanks for having me, Melissa.

Melissa: Dorian, on Thursday, you and I co-hosted an event marketing the start of the CTC payments. Community Change, the organization that you lead, was one of the many advocacy organizations who helped bring CTC into being. Can you tell me a little bit more about the coalition of organizations that were involved in making CTC a reality?

Dorian: There are a lot of grassroots, particularly welfare rights organizations led by women and women of color in the '90s, that emerged in the fight around a Child Tax Credit in response to the "ending" of welfare as we know it, that was signed into law, as you've already talked about, by President Bill Clinton in 1996. The Child Tax Credit was one manifestation of that into policy in early 1997. It was expanded actually under the Bush tax cuts in 2001, that allowed what's called partial refundability, that is people who previously didn't earn enough money to qualify for part of the Child Tax Credit. But it then took another 20 years of organizing and advocacy and champions in Congress to really, really get us to this point where we are today.

Melissa: These are pretty different than how we've seen tax credits work before. These are coming as monthly payments. Can you help us understand that?

Dorian: Up until July 15th, the Child Tax Credit was a once a year refund at tax time when you filed your taxes. We know that folks don't have emergency savings month to month. It's partly a question of policy design, and this is a very interesting policy design choice, to go from one lump sum once a year, to monthly. We know from social science research, that kind of stability allows parents and caretakers to be able to plan for things they need for that month, whether it's food or diapers or what have you. It's just a smarter way to do public policy.

Melissa: It does seem to me that that enormous departure is both the thing that makes Progressive's super excited and also maybe marks the difficulty in bringing along bi-partisan support. I want to take a listen to something that President Biden said on Thursday.

President Biden: Probably hear from our Republican friends, all who voted against this, but they'll tout the success as it helps working families and their states and their districts. I say to my colleagues in Congress, this tax cut for working families is something we should extend, not end, next year.

Melissa: What's the likelihood that the Biden administration can actually make that happen?

Dorian: It depends on three key factors, Melissa. First is awareness. Some of the early polling in May and June showed that half of eligible parents weren't aware of the temporary expansions in the Child Tax Credit. There's an awareness element here, public education awareness of letting people know, of letting parents know, they're aware.

Second though, is access. How do actual parents, and particularly those who haven't filed or haven't needed to file a tax return with the IRS, how are they able to file and receive the money? There are some serious access questions, particularly because we know the IRS website is not mobile friendly, many low income parents rely on their phones, for instance, to access the internet. There are a range of access questions. If people don't experience this, then that leads to probably not as much support as one would imagine.

Then third is advocacy, of course. It's not like this is going to be easy, an easy lift in terms of advocacy to win enough support in Congress to make this permanent. What we're facing is that when this expires after a year, child poverty will increase if there is nothing done. If the status quo, particularly in Congress, of not taking action on big things were to hold, then the poverty rate especially for kids would go up, parents would lose this benefit. Awareness, access and advocacy are the three elements here of what would be necessary to make this temporary change permanent.

Melissa: It's so fascinating to me that payments as modest as $250 to $300 a month can lift more than four million children out of poverty, at least according to Economists and the assessment of what this can do. How exactly is it that such modest payments make such a big difference?

Dorian: The one huge change in this temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit, people are not talking about enough, and that helps provide the answer to your question, Melissa. Before the American rescue plan, families that didn't earn over $2,500 were ineligible for the Child Tax Credit. There was actually a work or income requirement before this expansion. That's a lot, a lot of- that's millions of low income children that weren't ever receiving this credit or partial credit.

Because of that change, that again, most people are not talking about, there are a whole bunch of the poorest families. Can you imagine the poorest families in America weren't even eligible for this before the American rescue plan? When you expand it and say there's no income requirements, and that even if you didn't earn income, you are eligible for the full refund, that $3,000 or $3,600 per child. That is actually transformative because we know for those that- we have people in America that do in fact live on less than $2 a day, a title of a recent book by some social scientists.

We tend to think of poverty as this issue that affects yes, millions of people and especially Black, brown, Indigenous folks. But when you dig into the policy details, like I didn't-- I'm an expert in this and I didn't even quite remember that families that didn't make more than $2,500 were ineligible for the child tax credit before the American rescue plan. That's partly why this is so transformative, as you said.

That little amount of money, $250 or $300 a month, is transformative for millions of parents who really, really struggle to make ends meet, to put food on the table, supply those diapers, or to pay for school clothes or materials. This is a really, really big deal that we need much more discussion and conversation, and especially more research around.

Melissa: Well, thanks for starting the conversation with me. Dorian Warren is co-president of Community Change and co-chair of the Economic Security Project. If you want to watch the event that Dorian and I co-hosted yesterday, it's at the Economic Security Projects Facebook page. Thanks Dorian.

Dorian: Thank you, Melissa.

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Liz: Hi, my name is Liz Ritter. I'm calling from New York city. I do not qualify for the monthly child tax credit as my children are now adults, and when they were younger, our family income was well above the floor for this program, but as an American and a tax payer, I am so glad that this program has begun. There is nothing more patriotic than taking care of our neighbors and using our collective resources to extend a helping hand. Lifting families up out of poverty is a great investment in the common good.

Shayanna: Hi, my name is Shayanna [inaudible 00:13:26] California. I am a teacher in Hayward, California, and we did get the childcare tax credit deposit. For us, it means a lot less stress in trying to pay for the childcare costs that we mercifully did not have to pay during the pandemic, but has been keeping me awake at night. Thinking about how to pay for, as the school year starts and all of my kids go back to school full-time, and me wondering how we're going to have childcare for them after hours, in between my teaching day finishing and picking them up. I am so grateful for it, my husband and I both, and it will go exactly where it should, which is straight to my children. Thanks.

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