Good morning. Britain cut child poverty in half. Is the U.S. about to do so? |
 | | Volunteers distributed food in Warren, Mich., last week.Elaine Cromie for The New York Times |
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A ‘revolution’ in child poverty? |
Twenty-two years ago, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced an ambitious plan to fight child poverty in Britain. At the time, more than 25 percent of British children lived in poverty. |
At the heart of the campaign were government payments to families with children. The rationale was similar to that of benefit programs for older adults, like Social Security: Society has an interest in supporting people who cannot work. And in the case of children, poverty can cause damage that lasts for decades. |
The pandemic relief bill that President Biden is on the verge of signing contains a child benefit plan that resembles Blair’s in its ambition. Most families will receive $3,600 a year (paid monthly) for each child age 5 or younger, and $3,000 a year per older child. Other provisions in the bill will further lift income for poor families. The benefits phase out for many households making six-figure incomes. |
Over all, the legislation will reduce the child poverty rate this year to about 6 percent from about 14 percent, according to projections by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia. The biggest declines will be for Black and Hispanic children. |
What about unintended consequences? |
The idea of a child benefit has gained support from both progressives and conservatives. Many on the political left see it as a way to reduce economic inequality and increase opportunity. On the political right, Jason explains: |
Libertarians like that it frees parents to use the money as they choose, unlike targeted aid such as food stamps. Proponents of higher birthrates say a child allowance could help arrest a decline in fertility. Social conservatives note that it benefits stay-at-home parents, who are bypassed by work-oriented programs like child care. |
Christopher Buskirk, the editor of the conservative publication American Greatness, says that younger conservatives are especially supportive of the idea. People under 50, he explains, are “the ones feeling the brunt of the brutal slowdown in real wage growth that started in the 1970s.” |
The most common criticism is that the plan is a form of welfare that could reduce people’s incentives to marry or work. “Monthly cash payments should go only to working households,” Oren Cass, the founder of the policy group American Compass, writes in a Times Opinion article. (Cass suggests exceptions for the recently unemployed and parents who take leave after a baby’s birth.) |
But the evidence suggests that these concerns may be largely theoretical. In Britain, the changes to child benefits increased employment among single mothers, Waldfogel said. And when a panel of U.S. experts reviewed the research for the National Academy of Sciences, it found that a universal child benefit would have a “negligible” effect on employment. |
“You can’t live on it,” Megan Curran, a research scientist at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, told me. |
Ultimately, the biggest uncertainty about Biden’s child benefit may not be its impact but its durability. The bill headed to his desk will establish the program for only one year. Its advocates hope that it proves so popular — partly because it’s nearly universal — that Congress will make it permanent. Yet that remains very much in question. |
 | | A woman was vaccinated in Newark yesterday.James Estrin/The New York Times |
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 | | A migrant family crossed the border from Mexico into Penitas, Texas, on Saturday.Adrees Latif/Reuters |
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 | | Boichik Bagels in Berkeley, Calif.Preston Gannaway for The New York Times |
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Lives Lived: As a lawyer with a moral compass forged in part by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Priscilla Read Chenoweth spent seven years and tens of thousands of dollars of her own money to exonerate a young stranger wrongly convicted of murder. She died at 90. |
 | | The overtime coin toss during Super Bowl LI in Houston in 2017.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images |
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The N.F.L. will choose between skill and luck |
The National Football League has never quite figured out how to create a fair version of overtime. When a game is tied at the end of the fourth quarter, a coin flip determines which team gets the ball first in overtime. The winner of the coin flip then has an advantage — one that has been decisive in several recent playoff games. |
Now, there may be a solution, thanks to a rule change proposed by the coaching staff of the Baltimore Ravens. This one is called “spot and choose”: One team would choose the yard line where the ball would be spotted at the start of overtime. The other team would decide whether it wanted to be on offense or defense. |
As Matt Weiss, a former Ravens coach wrote on Twitter: “If you have kids you know the only fair way to split a piece of cake: 1 kid cuts the piece; the other one chooses.” |
Football fans and writers have suggested versions of this idea for years. It would eliminate randomness and add a strategic element to overtime, as one team tried to figure what offer to make to their opponent and the other had to decide whether to accept the ball or play defense. “This sounds complicated at first, but it’s actually a really fun idea,” ESPN’s Mina Kimes wrote. USA Today’s Steven Ruiz argued: “There is no good reason for the N.F.L. to not adopt this rule.” |
For it to happen, at least 24 of the league’s 32 teams need to vote for it at a meeting this month. Regardless, it will be too late for the Atlanta Falcons, who lost the coin flip at the Super Bowl four years ago and then lost the game to the New England Patriots without ever having the ball again. |
 | | David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. |
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This vegan cacio e pepe uses cashew butter, a spoonful of miso and tangy nutritional yeast. |
Imbolo Mbue’s second novel, “How Beautiful We Were,” is set in a fictional African village ravaged by an American oil conglomerate. “What starts as a David-and-Goliath story slowly transforms into a nuanced exploration of self-interest,” Omar El-Akkad writes in a review. |
The Morning now includes a bonus game from the team that creates Spelling Bee and the Crossword. The current game is Ditloids. The answers to yesterday’s: “0 = D.C. at which W.F.” meant degrees Celsius at which water freezes, “1 = T. Z. in C.” meant time zones in China and “2 = P. in a P.” meant peas in a pod. |
3 = B. of the U.S.G. 4 = Q. in a G. 5 = D. in a Z.C. |
The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were happening and heaping. Here is today’s puzzle — or you can play online. |
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David |
P.S. The Times and the National Center on Disability and Journalism have created a fellowship to cover disability in America. If you know young journalists who might be interested, they can apply here. |
Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about the child benefit. On “Sway,” Gen. John Raymond of the Space Force. |
Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. |
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