- Trump confirmed on Monday that not only does he support the idea of giving Americans a new stimulus check, but that a legislative package including them will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
- Having support from the president is important, but there’s still a long way to go legislatively before we get there and new stimulus checks become a reality.
- Here’s an estimate of how much your next stimulus check could be, and when Congress might take action to approve the new round of stimulus checks.
Now that we know President Trump supports the idea of Americans receiving a new stimulus check — as he confirmed in an interview Monday, saying “Yeah, we are” when asked if the government would be sending out more checks — the next logical question someone might have in response to this news is how big they’re likely to be.
The idea of a new round of stimulus checks has been somewhat theoretical up to this point, with a number of proposals having already been floated or even approved by lawmakers (like the HEROES Act, passed by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives). But nothing, as yet, is close enough to the finish line that new stimulus checks in response to the financial pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic are truly in sight for most Americans. Leading up to his comments on Monday, with Trump committing to a “generous” new stimulus package that we’ll apparently know more details about soon, the administration had already sent signals that it was headed in this direction. And now, with all of this in mind, we can start to make some projections about how big your new stimulus check might be — and when lawmakers are likely to take action along these lines.
Since the HEROES Act is already on the table, so to speak, and needs action from the Senate, let’s start there to get a sense of the size of your new stimulus check.
Under this legislation, $1,200 would be provided for every member of a household, according to income thresholds that are exactly the same as those in the CARES Act Congress passed at the end of March which set up the first round of stimulus checks. To get the full stimulus payments, a single taxpayer would need to earn no more than $75,000, and married taxpayers could earn up to $150,000.
Use this calculator to estimate how big your check would be under this legislation — all you need to do is head to that link and input your tax filing status, income, and your number of dependents.
The HEROES Act caps payments at $6,000 per family, compared to $3,400 being the most a family of four could get under the CARES Act ($2,400 for the married parents, then $500 for each additional child under the age of 17).
Now, let’s talk about timing.
The chatter right now is that Republicans, who control the Senate, are working toward the final week of July as when they need to come to some sort of an agreement about the next stimulus package. That’s not a random point on the calendar, either — it just so happens to be when the enhanced unemployment benefits made possible by funding from the CARES Act expire (on July 31).
This timing may be what the president had in mind during his interview Monday. The reporter Trump spoke with introduced his question by talking about people still struggling, for example, and who have spent all of the first stimulus checks they received. The president went on to confirm the following: “We will be doing another stimulus package. It’ll be very good, it’ll be very generous.”
