Stimulus Checks: All This Weekend’s Best Memes

Stimulus checks are back on many people’s minds this week, with growing support for a second payment and new revelations about the first round. For better or for worse, the economic impact payments distributed to help handle the coronavirus pandemic were bound to be a big topic of conversation on social media. For many people, the topic is ripe for meme-creation.

It has been over three months since the U.S. government agreed to send a stimulus check to almost every American taxpayer, and just over two months since the payments began going out. In that time there have been blunders, anxiety and economic relief, among other things. However, as the dust is settling and the pandemic rages on, many are saying that it is time to get another payment in to the American people’s hands. Others are taking a closer look at how the first round could have gone better.

Among the big stimulus check news this was was the revelation that over 1 million of the checks sent out went to deceased Americans. That’s about $1.4 billion in payments, according to a report by The New York Times, and the Treasury Department has very little recourse to seek repayment of that money. They are asking Americans to send the checks back.

Of course, this news did not sit well with Americans who still haven’t gotten their own stimulus check for one reason or another. It was also disheartening to those left out of the program, such as adult dependents or recent immigrants.

At the same time, many Americans are eagerly awaiting a verdict on a second stimulus check. The U.S. Congress has passed the HEROES Act, which would create another economic impact payment very similar to the first one, while some critics grumble that that is not enough. On the other hand, however, there are those who say it goes too far, and many of them appear to be in the United States Senate. The Senate does not plan on passing any kind of second stimulus check until late July.

All of this news has coalesced into a burgeoning genre of memes, which are a small but much-needed source of catharsis for many taxpayers during this trying time. Here is a look at how users online are making light of the stimulus check news.

Checking

Flush

Wishful Thinking

Big Purchases

Sharing

Impatient

Students