On Wednesday’s “CNN Tonight,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that President Joe Biden will argue that some of the social safety net measures of the coronavirus relief bill should be made permanent.
Host Don Lemon asked, “There’s provisions like expanding the child tax credit and increased subsidies for health insurance. Those expire, though, after a year, Jen. How much of President Biden’s sales pitch next week will be about convincing Americans that these social safety net measures should be permanent?”
Psaki responded, “Well, a big part. He wants to make the child tax credit permanent. He’s talked about that, and certainly, he’ll look for opportunities to do that and to work with members of Congress to get that done. And he certainly wants to make health care more affordable and accessible. But his real focus is on all of the specific details and making sure that people understand out in the country how to get access to all of the benefits of this package. So, I expect that’s going to be really the focus of his travel and the vice president’s travel and other members of the administration who will be out there in the country, making sure people know how they get the direct checks if they’re eligible, how they benefit from the child tax credit, what this funding means for their schools. So, this next couple of weeks — or these trips that he’s going to take is really going to focus on this particular package. But I promise you, he sees the benefits of the child tax credit, and knows that’s a way that we’re going to address the crisis that is the percentage of women, the number of women who have dropped out of the workforce. So, he’ll look for opportunities to talk about that too. But this will really be about the package that just passed today.”
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