US Launches Payments to Most Families With Children

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration on Thursday launched the biggest U.S. anti-poverty program in a half century, sending monthly payments for the first time to help most American parents care for their children.

The Treasury Department said the money would be deposited in the bank accounts of about 39 million households covering 88% of children in the U.S. — representing about 60 million children in all.  Under the program, families will receive up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and $250 monthly stipends for each child 6 and older.  For the moment, the payments will extend through the end of 2021, although Biden and his Democratic Party colleagues in Congress hope to extend the benefit as part of a package of social safety net measures they want to enact. If extended, the program is expected to cost about $120 billion annually. Republicans say Biden’s initiatives are too costly and object to his call to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay for them.