As winter storms sweep across the eastern seaboard, Americans are anticipating the much-less-than-expected, meager comfort of a $1,400 “stimulus check.” This sum, as many know, is less than what was originally promised on the campaign trail. Talk of means-testing, a sly maneuver to exempt the allegedly undeserving, surfaced despite backlash after the ridiculously small December payout of $600. While the most recent adjustments account for individuals who earn under $75,000, heads of household who earn $112,500 and joint filers of $150,000 and upward, I find it hard to believe that Biden’s rhetorical flip-flopping and legislative mess-making will prevail.
The stimulus checks are based on IRS data from tax year 2019 claims, and to put it lightly, circumstances have changed. Despite varying speculation on the economic impact of the pandemic, around one in 10 American adults can’t pay their bills, and three in 10 saw their income decrease. This is exacerbated among younger generations, with 26% of 18- to 26-year-olds falling behind on their financial obligations. And despite lighter means-testing, $600 additional per-child stimulus payouts and the $400 weekly unemployment expansions, the political abandonment of the $2,000 checks will surely create animosity among Georgia’s recent Democratic voters in the senatorial races, as candidates campaigned on that amount. Altogether, this is the very, very bare minimum, reformed only through heavy criticism by progressive and socialist think tanks like People’s Policy Project.
The state of the modern economy, even in its pre-pandemic condition, is not meeting the material needs of the public. Checks are good, but the newly aligned big tech and big capital coalition will automate and export labor, laying the groundwork for companies like Amazon to hijack small towns and take over industry. Even with reform, means-testing legislation like stimulus checks show the Democrats’ willingness to give in to the GOP’s longstanding sermons of “personal responsibility” while shepherding in the interests of venture capitalists. Talking points involving monetary policy were never what the public wanted, and sacrificing common good for Obama-era Congressional deal-making was what got us here in the first place.
This is echoed online with bleak yet humorous commentary – notably, tweets including images and allusions to how the Biden administration “owes” people the promised $2,000 – about President Biden’s stagnation, and users are justified in their gloom-and-doom attitudes. They are right to be suspicious of the administration’s subtle rollback of its hazy and incoherent progressivism. It’s hard to believe that the man who helped orchestrate the 1994 crime bill will be the nation’s knight in shining armor. Biden does owe them $2,000 – not $1,400. The stimulus checks are a homage to an unclear and tumultuous future ahead, with promises the Democrats simply do not want to fulfill. The logistics of governance and political appeal are real, but as polling shows, Americans want and need stimulus checks. The Democrats leveraged their power and won Georgia, reclaimed Pennsylvania and others, but their jarring and immediate fallbacks with the pandemic are apparent. Even Trump wanted $2,000 checks.
Demand that your government work for the people.
