Let’s Make the US a Welfare Nation
With the new Child Tax Credit, two-thirds of people in the US now receive monthly benefit checks. That’s a very good thing — it means delivering poor, working-class, and middle-class people clear material gains while also destigmatizing the welfare state.
Through the Child Tax Credit, about 88 percent of children now receive benefits from the US federal government. (Siro Rodenas Cortes / Getty Images)
Prior to last week, the federal government paid out monthly checks mostly to elderly and disabled people through the Social Security (SS) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. As of last week, it now pays out monthly checks to about 88 percent of children through the Child Tax Credit (CTC) program.
Using the 2019 CPS ASEC, I estimated what percent of the population now lives in a household with someone who directly receives a monthly check from the federal government. Prior to the new CTC, only 28 percent of the population lived in such a household. Now it is 65 percent.
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