From New York Times, I'm Michael Borrow. This is Daily.

Today, deep inside the economic stimulus bill that is expected to become law this week

is a revolutionary provision that would lay the groundwork for a European style social safety net

for children inside the U.S. My colleague, Jason DeParle, on how it works and the plan to make it a

permanent part of American life.

It's Tuesday, March 9.

Jason, as this stimulus package hurdles towards passage. It was just passed in the Senate.

It's about to be passed again in the House. Then it will become law.

Our colleagues at the Times have begun to describe it as the most sweeping anti-poverty

effort in generations. That's what we want to talk to you about. You write about poverty for the

Times. What makes this stimulus package such a historic change and the way that the U.S. government

seeks to help the poor?

Oh, gosh. The bill does lots of stuff. It provides direct payments to most American families.

It extends unemployment insurance, expands food assistance. The thing that I think is really

revolutionary about it is something I think most listeners probably haven't heard of.

Then that's called the Child Tax Credit, which is really a guaranteed income for families with

children. Tell me about this guaranteed income for children. I mean, just that. The government is

guaranteeing income for all families with children by sending them checks on a huge scale.

The parents of 93% of American kids, 69 million people, would be getting monthly checks of up to

$300 a month. $300 per child. No matter how many children? No matter how many children.

And what exactly can this money be used for?

That's another really unusual thing about it. It can be used for whatever the parent wants.

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