Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a warning on Sunday about lowering the threshold for Americans to receive coronavirus relief tests, saying he agrees with a cut for high-earners, but not for working-class people earning $ 50,000 a year .
President Biden’s $ 1.9 billion coronavirus relief plan calls for $ 1,400 checks to be sent to eligible Americans, but some Democrats and Republicans have pushed the idea of setting limits on who gets the payments.
Biden said he would be receptive to it.
Instead of limiting $ 75,000 to individuals, they want to reduce it to $ 50,000 – for couples it would go from $ 150,000 to $ 100,000.
Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said that from a policy point of view, legislators ‘must do the right thing’.
‘It’s absurd to tell working class people, someone who has a decent union – they earn $ 55,000, $ 60,000 – sorry, you are not eligible for the program. It does not make sense to me at all, nor do I think it makes sense to the American people, ‘Sanders (I-Vt.) Said on CNN’s’ State of the Union’.
But he said he agreed to a $ 300,000 phasing out for checks.
‘When people said, we do not want rich people to take advantage of that, I understand that. I agree. And what we need to do is have a strong cliff so that it does not spread to people earning $ 300,000. And that’s what I support. And that’s what I think most people understand, ”Sanders said.
His progressive colleague in the House, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also slammed the threshold and said people should get $ 2,000 stimulus checks.
“Just help people!” She said.