Uh let me first thank the Union city, daycare for hosting us today. I know the last thing we wanna do is interrupt nap time so uh. I appreciate director it's lunchtime or running and so my God, I came at the right time and then uh. I wanna thank director kathy, a stack for hosting us uh today and for the work that she does here uh back when I was mayor, I saw firsthand how families struggle to afford a safe and nurturing place to care for their children so I help launch Center to meet the growing need here in Union city for high quality day care and early child development and I'm proud to see what it has become. I also want to thank mayor stack for his leadership. I know he's in trenton today on the issue of child care, quality education and income equality in our States of champion for average working people uh and I appreciate the parents who you'll hear from shortly uh that would actually benefit from the legislation that I'm talking about today, seeing all these Not only brightens my day they remind me of what matters most to the future of our country and I bet every one of the moms and dads here would agree that children are america's most precious asset. The question is, do our policies treat them. That way today about 10 million children across America live in poverty at 15 percent we have one of the highest poverty rates in the industrialized world. It used to be much Fortunately, nutritional assistance, housing subsidies, tax credits and other programs of help reduce child poverty from 28 percent in 19 67 to 15 percent today, so when Republicans argue for big cuts to these programs claiming that the war on poverty has failed, let's be clear. They're wrong the warm property has not failed. It has stalled at a time of rampant income inequality. We simply are not doing enough to help families keep up with the soaring health Education, housing and childcare costs now, when we talk about the federal poverty level, we're talking about a family of four making less than 26000 dollars a year, but in high cost States like New Jersey, research suggest the family with two kids needs to earn at least 48000 dollars a year to just get by by that metric nearly a third of New Jersey's children well over 600000 children live in lower Families more than two thirds are children of color as a son of immigrants whose family came to this country with nothing. The fact that I could go from a tenement in Union city to the United States Senate is a testament to that American Dream. With these days, economic mobility just isn't what it used to be today. An American born trial into the bottom 20 percent of income has a seven and a half percent chance, seven and a half percent chance of making it to the top 20 percent You can worked or can't work towards a myth. We must restore the great promise of this nation that anyone who works hard can make it in America and I believe we must begin with our families. Consider a family of four earning the medium income in New Jersey of about eighty thousand dollars according to the usda, such a family will spend between 12 and 13000 dollars on each child each year Nearly a third of their income simply put in raising the child is more expensive than ever. That's. Why I joined senators, Brown and bennett to introduce the American family act a bold new plan to give millions of working families a leg up in this economy and cut the us child poverty rate in half our legislation and reforms the child tax credit to reflect real life challenges that parents face. We know for instance, that while the birth of a child is a joyous event, it is also An expensive one and the leading reason why families fall into poverty. That's why we create a new young child tax credit for children under six were 30 600 dollars per year per child. That's 300 dollars a month to help pay for strollers car seats diapers daycare and more likewise, for families with children aged six to 16 are legislation increases the current child tax credit from two thousand to three thousand, a year per child that's 200 and 50 Dollars more a month in their pockets to help make ends meet and our legislation makes the child tax credit fully refundable for the first time that's a big deal under current law, about 27 million of america's poorest children. Don't receive the full credit because their parents don't make enough money and because we know raising a child imposes daily expenses that can't wait for annual tax refunds, we direct the us Treasury to distribute these credits in monthly payments. It's a proven model used by other industrialized Nations that provide families with child allowances and, as a result, enjoy significantly less poverty. Here in Union city, a family with two high schoolers earning 60000 dollars a year might decide to use their expanded child tax credits for sat prep courses or new laptops further South, a single mom and toms River making 45000 dollars my put that 300 dollars a month for the new young child tax credit towards daycare. This is about level The playing field for children by providing a tax benefit to every family earning less than a hundred and 50000 dollars a year that's nearly nine out of 10 households with children in New Jersey. The American family act is the kind of bold action we need to give more low income. Children and especially children of color, a fighting chance of making it into the Middle class. It will cost less than the trump's tax deficit exploding corporate tax cuts and do a lot more to help the cash strapped families invest in their children so let me close by Some say we cannot afford to lift more children out of poverty. I say we cannot afford not to according to the National academy of sciences child poverty causes us between 600 600 billion and one trillion dollars a year in lost productivity higher health care costs and increase crime and homelessness rates in other words, we pay both a heavy moral and economic price For leaving so many children behind at the end of the day it's not enough good catch uh at the end of the day, it is baseball season starting very soon right. Um at the end of the day, we pay both a heavy moral and economic price for leaving so many children behind and at the end of the day, as I tell my Republican colleagues it's not just good enough to talk about family values, we need to have policies that truly reflect that we value families and that's exactly what we do with the American family Now let me call up um to parents uh who are gonna speak to in their own lives with this woman would mean uh joey Wong who has three children. 36 and eight and uh mister wanna wanna come on oh this one. I'm sorry I know joey okay. Thank you. Oh, um. I'm happy that someone in the government is looking out for families like mine uh it's To look for day cares provide for day cares with our income. We don't make a lot. We have to buy materials for the kids and what this um new legislation that the Senate is trying to pass will have funds every month to go towards these materials day cares other stuff at home, food, clothing, extra curriculum activities and I'm just happy that you know we don't have to be struggling as much as before Thank you sorry, much. uh Yes, okay I wanna make sure I got that right. Jose man. I, who has two children under the age of six. I only brought one because they want to be younger and I don't want them to make it make a fuss here. So first of all, thank you, senator for coming here and announcing the great proposal at this daycare Center um. I have had my kids in this day care Center for the last four years. We came here when we needed a day care to take care of our kids and uh, if you look around the area finding a quality daycare Center for art and for double price or difficult to do so. I'm glad that we Found this day care Center. We have both kids here and they are doing really well. They're learning they're being educated. The staff here is amazing. The teachers are amazing and we have met a lot of parents here and I can guarantee you that a lot of these parents can benefit from these tax cuts. Others, parents here that are making ends meet, perhaps me and my family have been more fortunate than others but that may not last very long the economy going in a downturn. You know what the future brings in two thousand and seven a lot of people lost their jobs, a lot of my friends have lost their jobs recently, so this amazing tax cut will benefit people, even if it cannot benefit them now would benefit them in the future so I hope that people live Your message and america's kids are the future of America and I hope that people do walk the talk as opposed to just talking about it. So 300 dollars a month, one kid 600, a month or two kids goes. A long way. Um. It pays for a lot of expenses provides a lot of you know extracurricular activities. My kid does swimming classes that is not very cheap and with two kids that are more expensive and a lot of parents cannot even afford this activities so maybe having this additional cash in their pockets will have availed them of moneys to educate the kids further so thank you for being here I hope uh that you guys support the senator and this uh great effort that he sent and everett. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I also appreciate a lower amount. Those the Fed us who is here. Uh and, like Al uh we've, had a uh for uh being with us as well, and at this point and happy to answer questions Si no Uh it was meal and when I say content that I'm gonna sound, like Union city, daycare, that we part of the political family at 10 AM must create Going to be able to say I'm a child tax credit and I got to make the city better and significant must uh North than even the leading the ground that is Let's zoom, in put on your credit or momentary, a significant element of them that says that they will be out there. Listening and being Let's get in and then you say, obviously says so we will have created this is the case That, I only, I told maintain, director and New Jersey where the family of beneficial they el nivel de pobreza, nivel nacional de quince por ciento alrededor de siete punto cinco por ciento, un esfuerzo dramático para mejorar el bienestar de nuestros niños y de nuestras familias y así y por último, decimos que los niños son lo más precioso. Lo más importante para el futuro de nuestro país. Pues entonces tenemos que tener política que actualmente refleja esa realidad y esta política de darle más dinero en nuestras familias para que pueden detener el bienestar de sus hijos. Es un ejemplo de esa política bien y ese anticuada se self change beni a pegar su hermanos yá bien, si pero sí por acá, es soft sexy forever up