U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who as the new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee will form the final bill on $ 1.9 billion in coronavirus stimulation, said Sunday that the direct payments of $ 1,400 should earn Americans who earn $ 75,000 or less.
Sanders, I-Vt., Rejected proposals to limit full payments to those earning $ 50,000, which was part of a plan to prevent richer taxpayers from getting a share of the money. According to the original proposal, checks could flow to families earning $ 300,000 or more.
“When people said, we do not want rich people to gain the benefit, I understand that,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” ‘And what we need to do is have a strong cliff so it does not spill over to people earning $ 300,000.
“But to tell a worker in Vermont or California or anywhere else that, if you earn $ 52,000 a year, you’re too rich to get this full benefit, I think it’s absurd.”
Sanders said the thresholds should be $ 75,000 for individuals and $ 150,000 for married couples, just as in the first two rounds of stimulus checks signed by President Donald Trump. Those earning less than $ 100,000 and couples earning less than $ 200,000 have smaller payments based on their income.
‘It’s also a bit absurd from a political point of view that you would have under Trump that these people would get the benefit, but under [President Joe] “Biden, who is fighting hard for the working class of this country, would not take full advantage of it,” Sanders said.
‘From a political point of view, 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. ‘
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Congress last week passed a budget resolution to bring about a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation, which would prevent a Senate filibuster and enable Democrats to pass the stimulus bill without any Republican votes.
While Biden spoke about cooperating with Republicans on the bill, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, said that was not the case, citing the president’s rejection of the alternative $ 618 billion spending package that he and nine other Senate Republicans proposed as too small.
“The administration shows very clearly that they do not care if they have to work with us,” Cassidy told NBC’s Meet the Press. ‘We’re getting along in good faith with at least ten or more who would join us, and they say they do not care. So, you got it. It takes two to tango. At the moment I’m not sure we have the two to tango. ‘
Senate Republicans noted that the previous stimulus bills were passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. But that only came after GOP senators tried to pass their own bills without any Democratic priorities, demanding that any legislation protect businesses from lawsuits if employees or customers are infected by COVID-19 and the taxpayer subsidies for religious and other private schools increase. Republicans also did not negotiate with Congress Democrats after the House approved two billion-dollar stimulus measures.
Biden and other Democrats insisted on the larger number, pointing out that too small a stimulus package in 2009, deliberately kept lower to attract Republican support, hampered the country’s economic recovery from the Great Recession.
Lawrence Summers, who was secretary of state under President Barack Obama, suggested that the $ 1.9 billion package could offset ‘inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation’. ‘The new finance minister, Janet Yellen, on CNN has replied that his concern about inflation must take a back seat in the concern that he does not have to spend enough money to get the economy back on track.
‘My predecessor indicated that there was a chance that it would raise inflation. And it is also a risk that we have to consider, ”said Yellen. ‘And I can tell you, we have the tools to deal with the risk if it materializes. But we have a big economic challenge here and tremendous suffering in the country. We need to address this. This is the biggest risk. ”
Recent studies by S&P Global and the Brookings Institution have said that a $ 1.9 billion package will bring the economy back to what it was before the pandemic later this year. And Moody’s Analytics said the plan would help create 7.5 million jobs and another 2.5 million next year, which would fully recover all the jobs lost due to the coronavirus.
The Republican alternative also dropped Biden’s proposal for $ 350 billion in federal aid to help state and local governments pay the salaries of first responders, teachers and other public employees. It was a top democratic priority.
Cassidy, who spoke with New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez last year about dual legislation to provide such assistance, told NBC that there was less support for the assistance this time around, as the loss of income in New Jersey was just 0.5 % was, and New York 1.5% and the average decline was 0.1%.
“It’s hard to draw political consensus when there’s only 0.1% revenue falling,” Cassidy said. “Some people go head to head and say, ‘This is not justified. Let’s think of another way to do this. ‘”
Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected].
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