Second Stimulus Check: Should Relief Funds Go Toward Job Training, Infrastructure Over Direct Payments?

Relief funds have been all the talk over the past few months ever since the first set of funding began to roll out as part of the first stimulus package. Talks of a second plan, however, have hit a standstill and will not resume until after Labor Day with the Senate going into recess. Once they resume talks, there will be plenty to discuss about the snags in the road that they encountered. One CNBC columnist, though, wonders whether these relief funds should go into direct payments or instead, go towards job training and infrastructure as a means to provide a longer-term impact instead of a more short-termed response that would come with a more traditional federal stimulus package.

When it pertains to this concept, monetary and fiscal spending have hardly had the impact on the economy as it has intended to. The idea of taking that money and diverting it over to something of the utmost importance, such as job training and infrastructure, the payout on the country as a whole could net a much greater gain. There's also the threat of the federal government's debt increasing at an alarming rate. In that particular CNBC article, the writer argues that it may be wiser to use the trillion of dollars that would go into a stimulus package to provide training in areas such as computer coding, artificial intelligence jobs, renewable energy jobs and on work that would better infrastructure. In arguing for this move, it's explained that this type of move would not only impact the now, but also could create a huge boom to an industry that would last for generations.

As for when a second stimulus plan would finally get passed, that won't occur until September when the two sides reconvene. There remains impasses with multiple sticking points, including unemployment. The one area they both seem to have an agreement us on the inclusion of another round of stimulus checks in the form of $1,200. President Donald Trump also is fully on board with this move. He even tweeted on Friday that he has advised the secretary of Treasury to get the direct deposits set up, implying a potential executive order could be coming. Trump previously issued an order regarding payroll tax and unemployment, the latter move employing a $400 bonus for those collecting, a slight drop-off from the previous total was at $600.