How long will it take?

Currently, the program is only written to run until the end of 2021, which means it will revert to its previous, more restrictive form after the year is up.

Some lawmakers – including Republican Mitt Romney – have tabled bills that would make the new version of the child tax credit or the like permanent.

Price would like to see that – and he adds that he sees the expansion of child tax credits as a significant development by the Democrats who willingly “ensure that a family with children has little income, or very little income, has access to Services. “

However, this is a very special, unique moment in American politics.

“I think the most important thing to realize that we are here because it’s a pandemic, an event every 100 years that has really shaken our entire society,” he said. “That has certainly created a lot of momentum to drive this policy forward … but I think it remains an open question whether it will be permanent.”

To make the new version of the tax credit permanent, Congress and the President must pass new laws.

The stimulus plan was passed by the tightly democratically controlled US House and Senate with virtually no Republican support, and Republicans have criticized many parts of it.

For example, Pennsylvania GOP US Senator Pat Toomey has blown the bill to include “wish list” items for non-pandemic Democrats, warning that doing so will lead to long-term economic doom becomes.

“We are way past the point where our economy collapses,” he said recently. “In fact, our economy is growing fast … there is also a real risk of overheating … which can lead to inflation.”

What does that mean for a city like Philadelphia?

Philadelphia has the distinction of being the poorest city in the country. Even before the pandemic revitalized the economy, Philadelphia’s 400,000 residents – or 26% of the city’s population – were living below the poverty line.

This means the vast majority of the city’s residents are eligible for the extended tax credit. Mayor Jim Kenney’s office recently estimated that it applies to about 9 out of 10 children in Philadelphia.

Octavia Howell, who works on the Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, published a detailed study of urban poverty in 2017.

She noticed that there are huge differences based on race. In 2016, Pew found that 37.9% of Hispanic Americans in Philadelphia were below the poverty line and 30.8% of blacks.

Approximately 22.9% of Asian Philadelphians and 14.8% of non-Hispanic white residents were considered impoverished.

But there was one statistic that really caught Howell’s eye: the number of children in poverty.

“38 percent of children in 2016 were affected by poverty,” she said. “That was high.”

In other words, Howell found that 32% of households considered impoverished were families with children.

Howell said that while it will take time for the effects of the incentive, and especially the child tax credit, to be fully implemented, she believes the overall implications for Philadelphians are fairly clear.

“Think about what it means to be poor for a family,” she said, noting that the current poverty line for a family of three is $ 21,960.

“Adding funds to such a low income, I believe, will benefit many Philadelphia households.”