While Senate Republicans and the White House continue struggling to put together a proposal for the next coronavirus stimulus package, taxpayers are getting restless. The proposal was expected this week, after the Senate returned to Washington following a two-week July 4 recess. Splits within the party and between the Trump Administration and Senators came up during talks though, and the proposal is not expected until sometime next week.
The next stimulus package will be the first since the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act was signed in April as an amendment to the massive $2.1 trillion CARES Act signed into law in March. The CARES Act included a one-time stimulus check sent to qualifying Americans, with many receiving a $1,200 economic impact payment. A stimulus check is expected to be included in the new package and is starting to look similar to the CARES Act’s program.
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“Speaking of building on what worked in the CARES Act, we want another round of direct payments,” McConnell said on Tuesday, reports CNN. The Kentucky Republican said the payments will “help American families keep driving our national comeback” and will help “create more American jobs is an urgent moral priority.”
Are they still working on getting the paper checks out that people who qualified for the first round STILL haven’t received?
— Benny D #BlackLivesMatter (@BennyDGinger) July 21, 2020
Republicans have been trying to keep the package’s cost down to $1 trillion, about a third of the HEROES Act House Democrats passed in May. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly rejected the HEROES Act as a “catalog of left-wing oddities” and a “wish list.” McConnell’s proposal is expected to include liability protection for businesses, schools, and other institutions so they do not face lawsuits linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Plenty of banks are not willing to extend credit to unemployed people. Someone needs to teach sec treas how the real world works while he’s waiting to take all of our houses again. And $1,200 does not last 10 weeks. This is not a government of or for the people.
— Lisa Stepanek (@LisaStepanek) July 24, 2020
Another major issue for the next stimulus package is the future of the enhanced federal unemployment benefit. The program included in the CARES Act entitled unemployed Americans to apply for a $600-per-week benefit from the federal government. It was allowed to expire at the end of this week, with no temporary extension. Some Republicans are looking to cut the program to as little as $200 per week, arguing that the program was a disincentive for low-wage workers whose jobs were not paying them as much as the federal and state unemployment programs.
Or would-be working people who instead have no jobs to go to; the point still holds. Honestly they seem to think each unemployed person can just borrow a million or two from Daddy and go become a “job creator” themselves.
— Equal Opp Cynic [Philip] (@EqualOppCynic) July 24, 2020
As this debate continues, the coronavirus pandemic is only getting worse in the U.S. The number of patients who tested positive in the U.S. crossed 4 million this week, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Just over 145,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began and 1.23 million Americans have recovered.
Please remember that everything you’re reading today about “the next stimulus package” is about what the Republicans are including in their proposal. Nothing is set in stone yet/has become law.
— Kelly Anne Smith (@keywordkelly) July 23, 2020
However, new CDC data published earlier this week found that the real number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. could be six to 24 times bigger than official numbers show now. “The findings may reflect the number of persons who had mild or no illness or who did not seek medical care or undergo testing but who still may have contributed to ongoing virus transmission in the population,” the study’s authors wrote.
Don’t blame this on the Dems when your own party officials in Congress never backed you up on it. The Dems are unified in their proposal for stimulus, the republicans are bickering behind closed doors because of you!
— Brett Zimmerman (@BrettMZimmerman) July 24, 2020
Would the Republicans “stumble” if it we’re a big bank or big business that needed a lifeline? #GOPdontcare #Republicans #unemployed #coronavirus #Plandemic
— Mike Gelb🇺🇸🇨🇦 (@Pulse360bpm) July 24, 2020
