- While Americans wait on a new stimulus check update, the coronavirus pandemic continues to linger and cast a long shadow over the US economy.
- Lawmakers seem to be slowly moving toward approval of a new stimulus package that would send out a fresh wave of checks to Americans.
- Here’s an estimate of how big your next stimulus check could be.
Based on the latest data from the IRS showing much it’s disbursed across the country as a result of the federal government’s stimulus efforts, more than $266 billion has been paid out so far to some 158 million US households since Congress passed its $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus relief legislation back in March.
That works out to an average of a little more than $1,676 for each household — though the talk has now turned to when and if federal lawmakers might approve another round of stimulus payments sometime soon, given the damage and ongoing nature of the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump has said more checks will be coming, and while we don’t have final legislation to that effect yet that’s been passed by both houses of Congress, we can make at least a little bit of a prediction as to how big the average American’s next stimulus check will be based on the information we do have at this point.
For one thing, there is a piece of stimulus legislation that’s halfway to the finish line — the HEROES Act, passed by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in May.
It’s a $3 trillion relief package the House passed in a 208-199 vote, kicking it over to the Republican-controlled Senate where leaders on May 29 said they needed “about a month” to gather their thoughts regarding this new bill.
This calculator will help you estimate how big your stimulus check could be based on the contours of this legislation. It’s pretty simple to use — in the boxes on the left side of the page, just input details like your tax filing status, your income, and your number of dependents. For example, it shows that a married couple with one dependent child and an annual household income of $100,000 could receive a $3,600 stimulus check under the terms of the HEROES Act.
As we noted, President Trump is now on record as of just about a week ago, saying he supports the government sending out a new wave of stimulus checks to Americans. That’s good, because it seems like conditions are getting even more favorable for them, based on things like new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, per CNBC.
That data shows that the number of employed people in the US as a percentage of the adult population fell to 52.8% in May — meaning almost 48% of people in the US are jobless right now. Unemployment numbers that high may give lawmakers reticent about approving a new stimulus package a bit of political cover, since this would suggest that people need the money now more than ever.
