- The coronavirus has brought the U.S. economy to a standstill and many Democrats believe another stimulus package is necessary.
- President Trump, however, recently said he’s in “no rush” to sign another stimulus package anytime soon.
- If additional payouts become necessary, some in the White House are floating an idea that would involve $5,000 payouts to Americans willing to delay their Social Security benefits.
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The impact the coronavirus has had on the U.S. economy has been pronounced. Unemployment is at a historic high, businesses have gone under, and many individuals and families have been left struggling to make ends meet. With that said, President Trump back in March signed a $2 trillion stimulus package designed to inject a bit of life into an economy that slowed down to a crawl. The aforementioned package included $1,200 payouts to eligible Americans, payments that the IRS began making last month.
Given the current state of the economy, there’s a good chance we might see a new stimulus package from Washington at some point in the future. Some folks in the Trump administration, however, are wary about increasing spending and have floated a few ideas to limit the impact on stimulus payouts to Americans. According to The Washington Post, one such idea involves giving Americans the option to receive a $5,000 stimulus check on the condition they delay their Social Security benefits.
The report reads in part:
Senior White House economic officials also are exploring a proposal floated by two conservative scholars that would allow Americans to choose to receive checks of up to $5,000 in exchange for a delay of their Social Security benefits, according to three people familiar with the internal matter. That plan was written by Andrew Biggs of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute and Joshua Rauh of the right-leaning Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
To be clear, the White House is reportedly entertaining any number of ideas to limit the impact of further payouts, which is to say that the Social Security plan above is just one idea of many being tossed around.
It’s also worth noting that a new stimulus package isn’t necessarily a guarantee. While Democrats have been pushing to enhance the current stimulus package, Trump late last week said that he’s in “no rush” to push through another stimulus package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, has said that more relief is needed and that the next stimulus package should be “big and bold.”
As it stands now, the White House is taking a wait-and-see approach.
“We just had another big infusion,” Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said recently. “We put all this money in which is fine. It’s worth it. Let’s see what happens. As we move into the reopening phase this month, maybe spillover to June, let’s have a look at it before we decide who, what, where, when.”
How this is will all play out is anybody’s guess. After all, even when the economy starts to re-open, there’s no guarantee that things will return to normal anytime soon given that many people who have been out of work may not even have jobs to return to.
