child tax credit

Wednesday briefing: Gaza aid deal; shutdown updates; E. Jean Carroll case against Trump; child tax credit; extreme cold; and more

Read today's briefing.

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that “the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” Decades later, while still a divisive idea, the conversation around guaranteed income is starting to simmer, and pilot programs looking at universal basic income, a similar idea, are popping up around the country. On the show today, Stacia West, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research, explains why King called for a guaranteed income, why UBI is gaining traction today, and what early results from pilot programs are showing us about its impact.

Then, we’ll get into the haggling over the child tax credit on Capitol Hill and check in with the world’s second largest economy. Plus, one historian was wrong about Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for the American economy.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Solution to Poverty” from The Atlantic

• • “Global Map of Basic Income Experiments” from The Stanford Basic Income Lab

• • “Stockton’s Universal Basic Income Experiment Increased Employment And Well-Being” from NPR

• • “The first results from the world’s biggest basic income experiment in Kenya are in” from Vox

• • “The Power of Cash: How Guaranteed Income Can Strengthen Worker Power” from Economic Security Project

• • “Musk Wants 25% Voting Control of Tesla Before Building Its AI” from Bloomberg

• • “Chinese Premier Makes Surprise Economic Growth Disclosure” from The Wall Street Journal

• • “Tax breaks for parents, businesses possible in last-minute deal” from Politico

• • “Opinion | Changes to the child tax credit are a win for Congress and America” from The Washington Post

We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia was always going to be the last Democrat to get on board with President Biden’s $2.2 trillion climate, social spending and tax bill. But the White House was confident that a compromise could be reached.

On Sunday, that confidence was shattered: In an interview on Fox News, Mr. Manchin essentially declared that he could not support the bill as written, and he indicated that he was done negotiating all together.

Where does this leave Mr. Biden’s signature domestic policy goal?

Guest: Emily Cochrane, a correspondent for The New York Times, based in Washington.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Manchin said on Sunday that he could not support the president’s signature bill, dooming his party’s drive to pass its marquee domestic policy legislation as written.
• Mr. Biden and his top aides have tried to salvage hopes of passing their domestic agenda, acknowledging that their only path forward is to repair a broken relationship with Mr. Manchin.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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Even as recently as a year ago, even the most cleareyed analysts thought it was a long shot. But this week, a child tax credit is expected to be passed into law, as part of the economic stimulus bill.

The child tax credit is an income guarantee for American families with children. It will provide a monthly check of up to $300 per child — no matter how many children.

We look at why this provision is so revolutionary and what has changed in the policy landscape to allow its passage.  

Guest: Jason DeParle, a senior writer for The New York Times and frequent contributor to The Times Magazine. 

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Background reading: 

• The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package moving through Congress advances an idea that Democrats have been nurturing for decades: establishing a guaranteed income for families with children.
• What’s in the stimulus bill? Here is a guide to where the money will be going. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Senate is preparing to vote on another stimulus bill — the third of the pandemic.

The bill has the hallmarks of a classic stimulus package: money to help individual Americans, and aid to local and state governments. It also contains provisions that would usher in long-term structural changes that have been pushed for many years by Democrats.

Today, we explore the contours of the Biden administration’s stimulus bill and look at the competing arguments. 

Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.  

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The stimulus bill is polling strongly across the country, including with many Republican voters, despite a scattershot series of attacks from congressional Republicans.
• Before the vote on President Biden’s stimulus package, here’s a fact check on some of the common talking points. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.