5 anti-poverty plans from 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, explained (Dylan Matthews)

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https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/30/18183769/democrat-poverty-plans-2020-presidential-kamala-harris-booker-gillibrand

Excerpt from an excellent read:

Several Democratic presidential candidates have coalesced on a distinctive approach to fighting poverty — transferring people money — and are including it as part of bigger proposals that help poor and middle-class people alike, ensuring that these ideas have a more prominent spot in the campaign than past anti-poverty plans have had.

So far, rumored and announced candidates have outlined at least five formal proposals designed to direct additional cash to low-income households. These proposals, all co-authored by senators — Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown, and Michael Bennet (Rep. Ro Khanna is a co-sponsor on one) — attempt to do different things: Two would expand the earned income tax credit (EITC), another two offers assistance for rent, and one is a child allowance. But they all have the same overriding objective: improving the lives of low-income Americans.

The press tends to analyze proposals like these in terms of how much they cost, how realistic their passage is, and so on. And while that’s important, I had a different question: Which of these plans would do the most to cut poverty in America?

It turns out that a team of researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy was asking that question too, and they have the skills to actually answer it. They estimated how much each of these five bills would reduce poverty, deep poverty (measured as the share of people living at or below 50 percent of the poverty line), and child poverty.

The five bills are Harris’s LIFT the Middle Class Act and Rent Relief Act; Brown and Khanna’s GAIN Act; Booker’s HOME Act; and Brown and Bennet’s American Family Act. And according to Columbia analysis, all five would significantly cut poverty.

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