Stimulus Package

That’s morally wrong

That’s you. That’s literally you. You are the elderly effected by the coronavirus. You are literally telling yourself to die for “the greater good”

Our economy is not “the greater good”

But I digress. Most importantly, is that sassy face @zerocarb keeps wanting to play selfie central with me, so here’s my now -

That’s a less than flattering rendition of me partaking of my last komboucha. RIP.

Then I noshed on the leftovers of my creative dinner last night. Chicken nugget flatbread pizza. With green olives. It was not exactly a 10 on the health o’ meter, was however delicious.

Also, my hairdresser called me back, and turns out, he is in fact available tomorrow..... decisions decisions. Should I go? Should I not? Then my nose itched, and I kept flashing to the meme of the chihuahua saying ‘that you rona?’

THEN I once more thought of zero sassy face and @losingitinvirginia when I saw this meme, and had to paste for my ladies

Every single one of these proposals would help the American people.

3/25/2020 So, at 1 AM Wednesday morning it was announced that the Senate and the White House had an agreement on the stimulus package.  I was skeptical, but it turns out my skepticism was aimed in the wrong direction, because now, and I swear to God I am not making this up, some Republican Senators are holding that shit up because they just fucking learned that some people make less than $600 a week. 

As previously discussed in this space, one provision of the package is bumping up unemployment benefits with an extra $600 per week.  (My exact words on the subject were, “Benefits are normally a percentage of the recipient’s former income, so making the bump a lump sum across-the-board is a really good thing for low-wage workers.“  Maybe I should’ve kept that shit to myself, because the Repubs have now worked out that some people may actually get more money than they got before they lost their job.  

Never mind that it’s only for four months, and never mind that you have to have lost your employment through no fault of your own (you can’t get Unemployment benefits if you quit your job, or if you’re fired for cause).  Never mind that $600 a week is not a lot of money, and if you’re making that little, you’re living somewhere around the poverty line.  

Also never mind the fact that the Republicans decided on the lump-sum increase because it would be faster and more efficient (i.e., cheaper) to administer it that way.  Now that they’ve learned that incomes under $600 a week exist, they’re willing to abandon those advantages in order to make sure that some bugger who, by definition, was already fucking poor before they lost their job through no fault of their own, won’t get more money in their unemployment checks than they got for working.  

Because if that happens, poor people won’t be terrified of losing their jobs during this crisis.  They won’t be scrambling to get any work they can, no matter how unsafe. They won’t be willing to throw themselves into the volcano to placate the Economy.  

Or, as the Republicans in question put it, they’ll be “disincentivized to work.”  

Those absolute, rat-fucking fuckers.  

Edit:  As of 1 AM 3/26/20, the stimulus package has now passed the Senate.  The last-minute amendment to reduce unemployment payments to lower-income workers did not pass–lower-income workers who go on unemployment will get the full $600 a week.  The article didn’t list the names of the rat-fuckers who voted in favor of this amendment, but if I find them tomorrow, I’ll add them.  The actual bill passed unanimously, 96-0.  

3/25/20:  I posted yesterday about the Coronavirus Recession stimulus package that is being worked on by Congress–which includes $1200 cash payments to individuals–and the bad-faith claims that Democrats are trying to block it.  (To reiterate, they are not.  They are negotiating to improve the package.)

Democrats have won another major negotiating point, namely, that the $500 billion aid package to big business will be overseen by an Inspector General and Congress, rather than–as previously indicated–being handed out by the Treasury Secretary with oversight from Trump personally.  Since Trump, when asked publicly, refused to commit to not directing the money toward his own businesses, this is a hugely necessary step to make sure that this public money is used legitimately in the public interest.  

They’ve also gotten more money earmarked for state and local governments, expansions to the bill’s unemployment provisions, and more money for hospitals.  (As well as, as described in the earlier post, making sure that the poorest Americans aren’t excluded from the individual stimulus checks.)

Per the CNN article linked above, Republicans and Democrats are now very close to an agreement on the stimulus package. Republicans were hoping to pass it Sunday or Monday; we’re now looking at maybe Wednesday or Thursday, but those couple of days of delay have won the country some very important things!  When you’re talking about something this important–not to mention involving this much money–getting it done right is just as important as getting it done fast.  

Also, and this is very important, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is working on getting House Democrats to agree to pass the bill by unanimous consent, so that when the Senate passes the bill it can sail right through the House and straight to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.  That’s going to be a lot more efficient than if the bill had to be debated again in the House.  

 3/24/20, US:Last week, it started looking all but inevitable that the US response to the economic effects of Coronavirus would include cash payments to individual citizens. This week, the plan is starting to take shape, as part of Stage 3 of the Coronavirus Stimulus Package, and it’s looking like the payments are going to be $1200 to adults and $500 for each child.

Unfortunately, there are rumors going around that Donald Trump and the Senate Republicans want to give us this money, and Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the Democrats want to stop them.  

This is untrue.

Both Republicans and Democrats have proposed sending cash payments direct to households.  Republicans have gotten more attention for their proposals because it’s incredibly fucking weird for Republicans to be in favor of something like this.  But Democrats’ proposals have been for larger amounts of cash , and establish benchmarks where second and even third rounds of checks would be sent out automatically if the economy doesn’t recover by specific deadlines.  

(Srsly, if you don’t want to read that last link, just look at the headline: one Democratic proposal would have given a family of 2 adults and 2 children up to $18,000, in 3 payments, one ASAP, one in July, and one in October.  The Republican plan that is now in the process of going through the Senate will give that same family $4400.)  

Democrats have not been able to get bipartisan support for their proposals, and they can’t force anything through, because the Republicans A) control the Senate, and B) have no shame.  (See: Impeachment.)  Republicans and right-wing media outlets are saying, in bad faith, that Democrats are blocking the Republican plan from going forward.  

This is also untrue.  

What the Democrats are doing right now is negotiating for improvements in the Republican plan.   Now, that is slowing down the process of getting the stimulus package through–slightly.  But the Democrats know how important it is that a stimulus package is passed–even if it isn’t ideal.  They’re going to vote in favor of it eventually.  Like, probably this week.  And the improvements they’re fighting for are very important.  

The first thing they fought for–and have already gotten–is that the cash stimulus will include the poorest Americans.  The original Republican plan would excluded the poorest people in our country.  Americans who don’t earn enough money to owe taxes would have gotten only $600–half the amount–and those who earn so little they don’t have to file (under $2500 a year) would have gotten nothing.  Because, like, $1200 in poor-people dollars is $600, I guess?  

Democrats said hell no to that, and the version of the plan now under debate in the Senate has no minimum income level: everybody gets the same $1200 for adults, $500 for children.  (Up to the maximum income level, that is–the payment starts to decrease at an income of $75,000 a year for a single person, $150,000 for a couple filing jointly, or $112,500 for heads of household, which is usually the filing status for a single custodial parent.  Less than 7% of American households are too wealthy to qualify for a stimulus check under this plan, and, to reiterate, no one is too poor to qualify.) 

Currently, you do have to file 2019 taxes or have filed 2018 taxes (even if you didn’t owe anything or would normally not have to file because their earnings are under $2500 a year) in order to get a check, but Democrats are also working on amendments that would get payments to go out to people who receive Social Security, welfare, or food stamps, even if they didn’t have to file taxes.

The second thing that the Democrats are working for is restrictions on the $500 Billion being given to big business.  (There is another $350 billion for helping small businesses pay their employees.)  That is a whopping chunk of change, and any stimulus package is going to give money to big businesses–the point of a stimulus package is to keep the economy going, and big businesses are an important part of the economy.  The problem is that the current Republican proposal has it being handed out by Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, with no strings attached by the legislature.  

Trump, asked about oversight for that money, said, “I’ll be the oversight.”  When asked if his personal businesses would get any of the money, he said, “Let’s see what happens.”  (Nobody even bothered to ask whether he would funnel the money toward companies that flattered him or did things to benefit him, because if he didn’t deny the other thing, there’s really no point.)  

So, Democrats are not comfortable with that plan for oversight of the public money, and are pushing for something a little more concrete.  Perhaps the most important thing they’re asking for is that companies getting the money commit to not laying off workers.   A recent poll shows that 74% of Americans agree that this provision is a good idea.  (And the part of the package that is for small businesses is specifically aimed at payroll costs.) The rest of the wish list is also discussed in that last link; it includes a $15 minimum wage for companies taking the money, banning the money from being used for  stock buybacks, and holding CEO’s personally accountable for their company’s compliance with the other provisions.   (Stock buybacks are a little complicated, but the main thing to know about them in this context is that they make shareholders richer without actually stimulating the economy.)

So, to sum up:

1.  Both Democrats and Republicans want to send you a stimulus check.  Yay!

2.  Democrats want to make sure that the poorest people are included in the individual bailout.  

3. Both Republicans and Democrats want small businesses to use their stimulus money for paying workers. Yay!

As with the stimulus checks, this is something that both Democrats and Republicans want to see happen.  (Yay!)   As with the stimulus checks, Democrats are negotiating to make the program even better. 

One thing that they have already done is increase the time period for the $600 bump from 3 months to 4.  That’s an extra $2400 per recipient.   

Things they are still working on include 

increasing eligibility for the poorest workers by raising the minimum income level.  (Unemployment benefits are based on what you’ve paid into the program, so people who earn too little to contribute normally aren’t eligible.)

Increasing eligibility for people with limited work history, such as 2020 high school or college graduates. 

Clarifying that recipients who have seen their work hours reduced, but not eliminated, will get a pro-rated portion of that $600 bump–so, if you’re hours are cut by half, you’d get an extra $300 on top of the fraction of your lost income that you’d normally get.  Currently, the plan leaves it vague, so states could decide that workers facing reduced hours don’t get any of the extra money.  

Here, the TL;DR is;

1. Both Republicans and Democrats want to increase unemployment benefits during the Coronavirus emergency.  Yay!