On Thursday afternoon, Joe Biden signed the first major legislation of his presidency, the American Rescue Plan Act. The $1.9 trillion bill allocates a ton of money to various state-administered welfare and social services programs that desperately needed an infusion of cash, both in the 12 months since the COVID crisis took off and the 25 years since welfare reform became a national political priority. The size of the commitment has drawn not altogether inappropriate comparisons to LBJ’s Great Society initiatives.
Beyond the top-line cash assistance, in the form of stimulus checks and child tax credits that will do an immense amount in the way of temporarily ameliorating some of the country’s most acute childhood poverty, the bill also allocates a $300-a-week federal boost to unemployment insurance, extends new pandemic-era UI eligibility programs through September, curtails health insurance premiums, boosts funding for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, and otherwise directs hundreds of billions of dollars to states to help offset the costs to their beleaguered social programs after a year of heavy use.
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