President Trump on Sunday signed the $ 900 billion Covid-19 aid package after initially questioning the bill by asking Congress to amend it just before the Christmas holidays.
The legislation, which was negotiated on a dual basis, provides for direct payments of $ 600. After the agreement was passed in Congress, Trump instead demanded $ 2,000 checks.
CNN asked you, our viewers and readers, after Congress passed the bill for your thoughts on the latest emergency relief package. Many expressed frustration over the direct payment of $ 600 and said that the account did not provide enough assistance.
Briana, from Concord, North Carolina, lost her job as a business development coordinator for a massage franchise due to the March pandemic and has not received any unemployment benefits since October. She and her husband now rely on volatile income they earn from a small flooring business they own, where her husband also works.
She told CNN that while the $ 600 stimulus test is beneficial, it is not enough for her family to get through the next few months, especially since she is worried about the timely payment of her mortgage.
“$ 600 per adult plus $ 500 per child is not enough to get us through, let’s just say four months,” she said.
“So we were very, very frugal with our money,” Briana explained.
She said the first stimulus package from earlier this year was much more useful.
Briana also noted that her situation is particularly difficult because she made the decision to homeschool her 7-year-old daughter due to the uncertainty about personal and virtual learning.
She told CNN that homeschooling lasts six to seven hours of her day, and she also devotes time to helping her daughter with schoolwork. While Briana was looking for work, it was difficult to find a job that worked according to her current schedule.
“People like me and my family fall between the cracks,” she said. “We need help.”
Nicole, a hairdresser from Los Angeles, California, who was out of work for most of the year, called the payment of $ 600 an “insult.” She relies on her husband’s income and unemployment benefits.
“We’re a two-income household and we need two incomes to make it work,” Nicole told CNN. Not being able to work was a ‘big hit’, she said.
She told CNN that the current package is not enough, and just like Briana, she said the first stimulus package was more useful.
‘We’ve been sitting here for six or seven months waiting since the end of July when the first … unemployment, pandemic support ended and since then something is better than nothing, yes, but what are we meant to do? where should it go? If there are so many places to go, “Nicole said.
She also expressed frustrations about how long it takes for the current package to succeed, calling it ‘unacceptable’.
The U.S. House of Representatives could pass a provision Monday night aimed at increasing the amount individuals and families receive in stimulus checks to $ 2,000.