Can monthly cash payments cut child poverty by nearly half?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The expanded Child Tax Credit payments start flowing from the federal government in July to roughly 39 million American households. They are an ambitious attempt to rewrite some of the core rules of the nation’s social safety net. The monthly payments of up to $300 per child are a deliberate departure from some of the guiding principles that built the current network of government welfare programs. Proponents predict they could cut nationwide child poverty levels nearly in half. The payments are only supposed to last a year, but architects of the change are openly talking about making them permanent.