tonight millions of american families receiving the first payment from the federal government s expanded child tax credit program. they ll get payments each month through the end of the year, part of the stimulus package president biden signed into law in march. it s hittstoric. it s our effort to make another giant step toward ending child poverty in america. i think this will be one of the things the vice president and i will be most proud of when our terms are up. a whole lot to discuss with cnn s john harwood and economics commentator catherine rampell. good evening, good evening. john, the first child tax credits have been sent, i asked people before the break, did you get your money today. tell us more about the magnitude of this for this white house. look, this is an extremely
thank you all. bring in gene sperling, overseeing the rescue plan. good to have you, especially on a day like this. this expanded child tax credit program will have huge impact, over 85% of american households. you can see people across the board saying they would like it to be permanent. we don t know if the entire $3.5 trillion bill can get passed. if it doesn t, is it possible to carve out the tax credit so it remains permanent? that s not even a hypothetical i m going near. we believe in the build back better plan that s going to pass. i think what s happening today is so historic. this is a piece of legislation that is in the spirit of social security. this same policy is going to be a huge boost for middle class security. huge middle class tax cut for families with working children.
checks from the child tax credit program but the free money could come at a cost as small businesses worry the subsidies from uncle sam will make the worker shortage worse and it is already bad. we re outside a local beer hall in arlington, virginia. good morning, hillary vaughn. this is not an insignificant amount or a couple bucks that these eligible families are getting every month but hundreds of bucks. 35 million families in america are getting checks in the mail or direct deposit into their bank account. one example an eligible family with three children under six years old will be getting $900 every month in their bank accounts from the i.r.s. there are a lot of small businesses wondering that this extra cash is significant enough to prolong the labor shortage that they re already experiencing because that $900 could be enough to pay for someone s rent or mortgage through the end of the year.
they can say 3.5 but until manchin and sinema are on board and some are backing away. bill: is this akin to 2010 when they announced obamacare and the push for healthcare. they had to make a lot of things that and eventually got it passed. dana: they had a different number. bill: they had more democrats in the house. dana: it s more free money from uncle sam starting tomorrow. families will start receiving monthly checks from the child tax credit program. who is paying for this and is it really necessary? cheryl casone is here to break it down for us. explain. it is interesting, guys. the biden administration included this credit in the american rescue plan in march when the country was just beginning to emerge from the pandemic and reopen. the expanded child tax credit will go out to 39 million families affecting around 65
trace: at more free money from uncle sam. next week tens of millions of american families will receive monthly checks from the tight child tax credit program. one looming question, as the president s plan the first step towards universal basic income? robert wolf had the same job with president obama. gentlemen, welcome to you both. steve, didn t we kind of find out over the past six months that given away free money is not great for the workforce? your thoughts? you better believe it. the good news is the economy is in a recovery, no question about it and i think robert and i are very happy about that. the economy is growing fast and we are getting a lot of jobs back but we do have a problem in terms of getting people back to the workforce. 9.25 million jobs openings according to the report yesterday, talk to employers across the country and they say they can t get their workers back and i believe that is because we are paying people so much money with all these