- AOC accepted Biden’s decision to limit the suitability for a third stimulus test as an ‘own goal’.
- Persons earning $ 75,000 or less will receive the full check, but those earning more than $ 80,000 will no longer be eligible.
- Biden’s move also drew criticism from other progressives.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemns the “conservative” Democratic senators who forced their party to restrict admission to a new set of $ 1,400 stimulus checks under President Joe Biden’s emergency relief package.
Biden endorsed the proposal to speed up the phasing out of the $ 1,400 stimulus checks to prevent people earning higher incomes from receiving a third direct payment, two Democratic assistants told Insider on Wednesday. The checks form an important part of the $ 1.9 billion relief legislation that the Senate will use.
“Conservative Dems have fought, so the Biden manager is sending less and less generous relief tests than the Trump admin did,” Ocasio-Cortez said. tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “It is a step that has little or no political or economic meaning, and is aimed at an element of enlightenment that everyday people feel most tangible. An end in itself.”
A few other progressive House Democrats have also expressed frustration over negotiating stimulus checks. The Senate could possibly cast its first vote on Wednesday on the $ 1.9 billion relief package.
—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 3, 2021
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chairwoman of the House Progressive Caucus, said she was not happy with the smaller individual checks. And Representative Mark Pocan called the compromise agreement “Senate lawlessness.”
“I do not like it being narrowed down,” Jayapal said on Wednesday. “I feel that the survival check is the easiest, simplest, most popular, most populist proposal.”
But many Senate Democrats see the move as a necessary compromise.
“I think it’s an appropriate way to bring it to a successful conclusion,” Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado told reporters Wednesday.
The House approved the enlightenment bill Saturday with a higher allowance for individuals and couples, maintaining the same revenue thresholds as earlier pandemic aid packages.
But moderate Senate Democrats have considered Biden limited to the past few days.
People who earn $ 75,000 and less will receive the full check, but those who earn $ 80,000 and more no longer qualify. Couples earning $ 150,000 and less will receive the full payment, but those earning $ 160,000 and more will no longer qualify.
A preliminary analysis by the left-wing Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy indicates that about 16 million fewer Americans do not qualify under the new draft plan for a third check, compared to the House version of the bill.