- A group of progressives in the House of Representatives isn’t waiting around for a new stimulus check update from President Biden or the Congress at large.
- More than 50 House members have signed a letter urging President Biden to support not just one new $1,400 stimulus check — but a series of recurring stimulus payments, until the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
- “One more stimulus check is not enough,” the House Democrats write to President Biden.
“One more stimulus check is not enough.” That’s what a group of more than 50 House progressives wrote in a letter sent to President Biden and Vice President Harris on Thursday, in which they pushed the administration for a new stimulus check idea that’s far more radical than one more check for $1,400 or even $2,000.
While millions of Americans wait for a stimulus check update from Congress that reveals whether Biden’s preference for a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks gets approved, this group of Democrats wants to turn that check into a recurring series of payments. And they want the payments to last until the end of the coronavirus pandemic. “We kindly request that your incoming administration consider including support for recurring cash payments in your future economic relief plans,” their letter to the administration, which you can check out here, reads.
“The stunning financial crisis for those at the bottom of the income ladder demands massive relief to those who need it most,” explain the House members, including New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Recurring direct payments until the economy recovers will help ensure that people can meet their basic needs, provide racially equitable solutions, and shorten the length of the recession.”
Giving that Republicans are already balking at President Biden’s existing economic rescue plan, which includes the $1,400 stimulus checks and currently has a price tag of $1.9 trillion, it’s probably safe to assume this new idea has no chance whatsoever of becoming law. Fire up the money printers to the point that millions of Americans basically get added to the government payroll, receiving one new stimulus check after another until the end of the pandemic? Some Republicans were already bemoaning any emergency aid to Americans at all during this crisis as putting the country on the primrose path to socialism, so, suffice it to say, this would need to be something that Biden’s party rams through on its own.
It won’t though, nor will Biden himself pick up the flag and lead the charge for this new stimulus check proposal — which tells you a little something about who the new president really is. And isn’t. He’s not, for example, the mega-socialist that Fox News has already attempted to paint him as, which will be proven by the willingness he’s already demonstrated to negotiate with Republicans over the new stimulus checks. As the president said himself during a press availability on Monday: “There’s legitimate reason for people to say, ‘Do you have the lines drawn the exact right way? Should it go to anybody making over X number of dollars or Y I’m open to negotiate those things.”
