Americans are ready for the government to come up with a plan to get second stimulus checks sent out, and they are pleading for politicians to “stop playing games with our lives.” Yahoo News reports that the back and forth between Democrat and Republican leaders has led many citizens to grow upset over the lack of financial help, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Lisa Schutt is a 54-year-old seasonal theme park worker from New York’s Long Island, and she told the outlet that she’s been out of work since the pandemic began.
“It’s been hard,” she said Schutt. “We feel like the president is playing politics with this. … I have bills to pay.” Schutt had been a lifelong Democrat, but voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. “I’m a Trump supporter however this is pissing me off,” she tweeted on Oct. 6, after Trump tweeted that he was calling off stimulus bill negotiations until after the election. Schutt went on to say that, while she is not thrilled about what is happening, she is still not keen on voting Democrat. “I don’t feel confident in Biden and Kamala [Harris],” Schutt said. “The Democratic Party is not what it used to be … [but] this president is keeping his word. He supports the values I do. … I feel like Trump really does love this country.”
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Nursing home administrator Christopher Linton, a 25-year-old from Louisville, Ky., says that a second stimulus check probably won’t matter much for him, but he feels that it’s very needed for many others. “People took a pay cut and took on extra expenses that they didn’t realize they needed [like child care],” he said. “Twelve hundred dollars would do a lot for a lot of different people in a lot of different industries. … The country is a hard place to live in as it is, and this puts people in a worse position than they were in.”
“I don’t think you should use stimulus as leverage in an election,” said Linton. Trump “is using the stock market as an indicator for his actions, but it’s not indicative of everyday Americans. … I don’t think President Trump understands the life of an everyday American. He’s never had to worry. He’s in that bubble, and that’s not the case to most Americans.”
At this time, there is no word on when stimulus negotiations may resume. Trump called them off, and then quickly had the White House make a new offer, which was rejected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also said that a new stimulus bill is not likely to be agreed upon until after the election.
