SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the a-billion-here-a-billion-there-pretty-soon-you're-talking-about-real-money dept.
Biden signs $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, making $1,400 checks and child tax credit official:
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes a third stimulus check, for up to $1,400, and an expanded child tax credit. The IRS and Treasury will begin to send the new stimulus checks as soon as this weekend, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday at a press briefing.
The bill signing comes just one day after the amended bill passed in the House by a vote of 220-211. The House initially passed the bill on Feb. 26, and the Senate approved it last week, albeit with some changes.
[...] Democrats had been pushing to get the stimulus package signed into law before current unemployment benefits expire March 14. Biden was originally scheduled to sign the bill on Friday, but it got moved forward after Congress sent the final bill to the president more quickly than anticipated, Psaki said on Thursday.
The stimulus package, called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, includes changes made by the Senate last week, such as reducing income limits for the third stimulus payment and lowering proposed weekly unemployment benefits from $400 a week to $300 a week (though they'd extend through Sept. 6 rather than the end of August). The Senate also dropped a federal minimum wage increase from the legislation, but proponents say they'll reintroduce that at a later date.
How to watch President Biden's national address tonight.
House passes $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, sends it to Biden to sign:
[...] Here are the proposal's major pieces:
- It extends a $300 per week jobless aid supplement and programs making millions more people eligible for unemployment insurance until Sept. 6. The plan also makes an individual's first $10,200 in jobless benefits tax-free.
- The bill sends $1,400 direct payments to most Americans and their dependents. The checks start to phase out at $75,000 in income for individuals and are capped at people who make $80,000. The thresholds for joint filers are double those limits. The government will base eligibility on Americans' most recent filed tax return.
- It expands the child tax credit for one year. It will increase to $3,600 for children under 6 and to $3,000 for kids between 6 and 17.
- The plan puts about $20 billion into Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing and distribution, along with roughly $50 billion into testing and contact tracing.
- It adds $25 billion in rental and utility assistance and about $10 billion for mortgage aid.
- The plan offers $350 billion in relief to state, local and tribal governments.
- The proposal directs more than $120 billion to K-12 schools.
- It increases the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit by 15% through September.
- The bill includes an expansion of subsidies and other provisions to help Americans afford health insurance.
- It offers nearly $30 billion in aid to restaurants.
- The legislation expands an employee retention tax credit designed to allow companies to keep workers on payroll.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @03:03AM (29 children)
And Jeff Bezos would be getting a $5.7k check, is that supposed to be better?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Friday March 12 2021, @03:31AM (7 children)
And for that reason, nobody should get it? That's weird thinking...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @03:56AM (6 children)
Yes, that is definitely an accurate representation of my position!
Or, perhaps, I'm in favor of giving it to people who make less than $160k which is in the bill I just posted about.
It is true that it does exclude Jeff Bezos. And, thanks to Manchin, myself!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday March 12 2021, @04:03AM (3 children)
Yeah, well, you are a democrat, counting out your pennies...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @04:27AM (2 children)
Well I watched the speech and kind of liked it. I feel like I might actually get the vaxx in a reasonable timeframe.
I'm OK with that getting stimulated as opposed to my bank account. The debt actually is important. I'm not too pissed off by Manchin trying to reduce the sticker price a bit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @01:19PM
Not when that money is going to help ordinary people, it's not. 'But the debt!' is a Republican talking point. Manchin would know.
So you're okay with fucking over people on unemployment to the tune of $100/week and stealing checks from millions of people who received the $600 checks, just to save what amounts to an absolutely minuscule amount of money? Just insane. Democratic party partisan hacks really are right-wing.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday March 12 2021, @06:47PM
I could believe you mean that if you made some noise about the Wall Street bailouts instead of standing up for Manchin. The "debt" is nothing but a bullshit pretext to justify austerity that the democrats do not oppose.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @07:09AM
Are you also in favor of lying? Because the Democrats promised $2,000 checks ($600 + $1,400) if they won, and now they've excluded millions of people who received the $600 checks from receiving the $1,400 checks. Those people were 100% lied to and betrayed. Are you in support of that, too? What's worse is that the people in that income range were the ones who helped Democrats win states like Georgia. Is screwing over your own voters the strategy for winning 2022?
We saved what amounts to fucking pennies on this and broke a major promise. And I don't believe for one fucking millisecond that Joe Manchin would have tanked the entire must-pass bill if they had kept the income thresholds and unemployment benefits the same; that was just an excuse to do what Joe Biden wanted to do already. Such a 'compromise' would not have been made under Bernie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @11:41AM
Why spend a bunch of money on bureaucracy to determine who gets paid, when you can just send them to everybody?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @04:23AM (1 child)
Universal income is supposed to be universal, so yes Jeff Bezos gets a $5.7k check.
Aw, can't have that! You're back to peddling jealousy, envy, and other negative feelings. You're back to dividing us with class warfare. (yeah, "divisive", that's you)
Seriously, it would be better. It might not be good, considering questions of inflation and motivation. It would be better though. Giving a $5.7k check to everybody would at least avoid funding your toxic pet causes and bailing out your rich San Francisco friends.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @11:47AM
Direct universal payment would be the most democratic form of stimulus that exists, and most in line with the theory behind stimulus (give people money, and most will spend it immediately on obligations or recreation, thinking of it as "free money").
(Score: 3, Insightful) by julian on Friday March 12 2021, @05:03AM (7 children)
Have you forgotten taxes exist? We just claw it back from him, and then some, at the end of the year.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @05:22AM (6 children)
What can be passed via reconciliation can be un-passed via reconciliation.
The obvious rebuttal to any debt concerns would be to repeal that tax cut for rich people.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @05:59AM (5 children)
Because you're totally going to nail "rich people" for 1.9 trillion bucks. 1,900,000,000,000. Even if you go for the richest 10,000,000 taxpayers (cutting well deep into the middle class here) that's an average of 190,000 each.
That's exactly what we'd be clawing back, right?
You don't believe your own arithmetic, if you even checked it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @06:43AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFI2Zb7qE [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @06:53PM (2 children)
We could bring in $7.5 trillion by simply enforcing the existing tax code on rich people. [nytimes.com] REfund the IRS!!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday March 12 2021, @07:22PM
Agreed, these are the reasons we have a "debt", so why is anybody talking about raising taxes [reuters.com]?! Why aren't Biden and all the other democrats putting this on the front page? The net just a little too big? Might catch Pelosi and Feinstein, et al perhaps?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @10:53PM
7.5 trillion - over ten years.
And even that is a guesstimate, assuming that the people they want to go after have incompetent accountants and lawyers.
Maybe.
If they first dump fat pots of money at the IRS.
It would make way more sense to simplify the tax structure to remove loopholes and so on ... but that's also a mess because who depends vastly on those loopholes? The middle class.
It would make way more sense to ditch personal income tax entirely, structure it as a (much lower, yet net similar) payrol tax on businesses, vastly reduce the expense burden of the IRS, and stop hassling individuals.
But no ... that's not the narrative that the writer wants to produce. Rich people are eeeevil tax cheats. You know it, I know it, it feels right.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Saturday March 13 2021, @11:47AM
Think again. They've reportedly added $1.1 trillion to their money bins during the past year alone https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/american-billionaires-added-1-1-trillion-in-wealth-during-the-pandemic/ar-BB1d6AgG?viewall=true+ [msn.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday March 12 2021, @06:21AM (4 children)
Better than giving ~75% of that money to pork?
Are you crazy?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @06:55PM (3 children)
Pork like paying for and distributing vaccines...
The best way to stimulate the economy is to give me the vaxx so I can go to a fucking bar again.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday March 12 2021, @07:31PM
Even that is a relatively small part of the bill. Most has been inadequately itemized to know where it's going, very convenient.
But I guess we're supposed to be grateful when a billionaire tosses out a nickel for 20 people to fight over.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 12 2021, @11:46PM
Actually no. That's part of the ~25% that has been accounted for.
Indeed. But what does oh, 99+% of this bill have to do with that?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday March 13 2021, @12:23AM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @07:03AM (4 children)
Who gives a fuck? There aren't that many millionaires and billionaires, so it would amount to nothing. Means-testing is extremely inefficient and delays getting checks to the people who do need it. A UBI is 100% better.
I can't believe we as a country are so stupid that we're willing to screw everyone over just so a few people who don't 'need' the money won't get it, even though it's an astronomically small sum to them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @06:26PM
I was going to sat Republicans, but they are happy to give money to the people that don't need it and worse than Scrooge when poor peoole need help.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 12 2021, @06:58PM (2 children)
I agree with you in general but this is a bill targeted specifically at COVID. So the question is what is the best way to mitigate the pandemic?
In my opinion, giving me and Jeff Bezos a check when we're making money off all this chaos is less productive than spending our checks on vaccines and distribution.
I'll stimulate the hell out of the economy myself if I can get vaxxed and go to restaurants again!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 13 2021, @12:26AM (1 child)
I see that the covid vaccine is priced for under $40 [healthline.com] per dose. So the federal government could pay for full vaccination of everyone in the US for under $13 billion. Where's the need for the rest of the $1.9 trillion in spending?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 15 2021, @03:45PM
Bread and Circuses
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @02:59PM
That $5.7k would be the least of our worries compared with the taxes he's allowed to avoid. And giving it to everybody makes it a lot harder to argue against.