The House of Representatives has now passed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill for a second time, in order to incorporate changes made by the Senate — the final step before the bill lands on the president’s desk for his signature, and then the $1,400 stimulus checks start going out the door.
Because the implementation of the bill is now so imminent, a new stimulus update from the Urban Institute has analyzed the overall legislation and found that it will pretty broadly cut the poverty rate, thanks in part to benefits like the stimulus checks as well as an extension of jobless aid. Along these lines, in fact, this is as good a time as any to remind everyone that notwithstanding the outsized share of attention the $1,400 stimulus checks have been getting from the media, from political figures, and from critics of the Biden plan, many Americans are actually going to receive much more than $1,400 thanks to all the benefits in the stimulus legislation once everything is said and done.
Families with children, for example, would seem to be among the biggest beneficiaries here, and this is why:
A family of four with a household adjusted gross income below $150,000, for example, is set to receive $5,600 once President Biden signs the stimulus bill into law and the checks start going out. That amount reflects $1,400 for both of the adults in the household, but also another $1,400 each for the two dependents. And the benefits don’t stop there.
That same family is also eligible to receive an additional $3,600 as part of an expanded child tax credit for children up to age 6 — or, if their children are older, they’d get $3,000 for each child between the ages of 6 and 17.
New analysis of Biden stimulus impact out today –>
— Poverty falls by 42% for black people
— By 39% for Hispanic people
— By 34% for white peopleOverall, bill lowers poverty rate from 13.7 percent to 8.7 percent – similar to Columbia analysishttps://t.co/8LVhO7vpFB
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 10, 2021
Check out our previous post for additional details along these lines, detailing some of the myriad ways that Americans stand to benefit from provisions in the new stimulus bill. The provisions in the bill also include an extra $300 a week in federal jobless benefits as well as money to support COVID vaccinations around the US.
Poll results released on Tuesday from the Pew Research Center found that 70% of Americans favor the stimulus bill, including 41% of people who self-identify as Republicans. Looking deeper at the poll results, 41% of Americans said they think the stimulus bill roughly gets everything right, while another 25% said the stimulus bill actually doesn’t spend enough money. And in related news, a similar number of Americans are currently in favor of the way President Biden is handling the coronavirus pandemic overall, according to an Associated Press poll.
“Who wouldn’t be in favor of the government depositing free money into their bank accounts?” a Republican strategist who preferred to remain nameless lamented to NBC News.
