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Put $12,500 in my pocket now, and I and millions of other common sense Americans will go about our business secure. Job or no job, we would have no trouble paying our mortgages or rents, taking care of our families and dealing with what the next day

Americans Didn’t Get What They Needed in Stimulus Plan: A Bigger Check



Americans Didn’t Get What They Needed in Stimulus Plan: A Bigger CheckThe federal government’s $2 trillion Coronavirus emergency plan fails to get money fast enough and in large enough amounts into the hands of Americans. Putting rescue funds in the hands of Americans as quickly as possible – that’s what’s truly needed to offset the Coronavirus quarantining and social distancing. This health care response threatens to ruin the American economy, necessitating a much smarter solution than what Washington produced last week.
The reality of pending mass unemployment can only be treated by bestowing much bigger checks on Americans than the ones approved in the stimulus package. Only meaningful-sized payments can assuage the fear that Americans will feel when they see their fellow citizens losing their jobs in horrific numbers. By spending these larger checks on necessities, Americans will maintain the “demand” for goods and services required to sustain the American economy. Americans are being asked to accept living under state executive orders to contain Coronavirus, such as “shelter in place” and restrictions on businesses. These extraordinary dictates require receipt of extraordinary resources which are not provided in this stimulus package. Corporations, hospitals, and all branches of government were placed ahead of We The People. Only a plan so costly and ill-conceived could come from the mind of Government House. Here’s what ought to have been done instead. There are roughly 160 million taxpayers in the United States. If that $2 trillion had been divided by 160 million, then each taxpayer would have received an extra refund of $12,500 and couples, $25,000. Nobody then would fear what would happen in the economy next. The health care establishment would be free to mobilize against Coronavirus and government could redirect industries to manufacture needed equipment such as masks, ventilators and vaccines. The “stimulus” plan is mostly government giving money to government. Dividing $2 trillion equally between taxpayers – citizens and non-citizens alike provided they filed a tax return in 2018 – is the simple solution. Congress could then respond with a true stimulus plan for infrastructure, which is what the federal government might normally do in response to a crisis.

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Point by point, the stimulus legislation misses the mark. The package is a colossal misappropriation of money. The bill signed by President Trump last Friday fails to address the Number One economic problem caused by the Coronavirus outbreak response: the coming destruction of consumer demand due to Americans losing their jobs and pay. Getting $2 trillion to Americans as fast as possible ought to have been the primary focus of printing money out of thin air. Instead, the payments to Americans are dwarfed by other spending. The “Checks on the Way” provision will give all U.S. residents with adjusted gross income up to $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples) a $1,200 ($2,400 for couples) “rebate” payment, according to reports. They are also eligible for an additional $500 per child payment. There is the usual complicated “phase outs” for who those who earn more, etc., so presumably the “wrong people” don’t get money. Besides being needlessly complicated, this is not nearly enough money to put in the pockets of Americans to make a difference. Everybody needs money now, not simply middle- and low-income earners. Each American taxpayer deserves a meaningful cash payment immediately. With larger direct payments to Americans, businesses trying to stay afloat could furlough workers knowing that their employees would return later when Coronavirus is beaten. Let’s look at the numbers and costs of this misguided legislation:

  • Expanded jobless benefits that nobody can predict how much will eventually cost.
  • A $500 billion pot of money for the Treasury Department to grant loans to airlines, cities and towns, with government picking winners and losers.
  • A $100 billion allocation to hospitals, which is health care, not stimulus.
  • Another $58 billion to airlines for grants and loans, all with government caveats for the money’s use.
  • An additional $150 billion to state and local governments.
  • How about $10.5 billion to the Pentagon for…. What does that have to do with Coronavirus?
  • And finally a $10 billion loan to the Postal Service, also a measure totally irrelevant to Coronavirus and which should be addressed elsewhere.
There is no money for infrastructure in this stimulus legislation either, which is fine. However, when infrastructure legislation does come down the pike, it will be responding to an extremely damaged economy, rather than one dealing with a short-term displacement. If there is going to be government interference in the economy, the great American 20th Century conservative theorist William Buckley’s said that transfer payments ought to go as directly as possible to individuals rather than to bureaucracies. Put $12,500 in my pocket now, and I and millions of other common sense Americans will go about our business secure. Job or no job, we would have no trouble paying our mortgages or rents, taking care of our families and dealing with what the next day brings, which is the best we can do in these challenging times.


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Daniel Wiseman -- Bio and Archives

Daniel Wiseman is an independent political commentator, who focuses on national and international affairs. He spent nine years as a professional journalist in Wyoming before working in fund-raising, non-profit management, and is now working in New York City. Wiseman focuses his writing on how to bring the United States back to its Constitutional moorings.  He writes exclusively for Canada Free Press.


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