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U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who as the new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee will shape the latest $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, said on Sunday that direct payments of $ 1,400 are expected to go to Americans earning $ 75,000 or less.
Sanders, I-Vt., Rejected proposals to restrict full payments to those earning $ 50,000, which was part of a plan to prevent richer taxpayers from getting a share of the money. Under the original proposal, the checks could be paid to families earning $ 300,000 or more.
“When people say we don’t want the rich to get this benefit, I understand that,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “And what we need to do is have a steep cliff, so that it doesn’t affect the people making $ 300,000.”
“But to tell a worker in Vermont or California or wherever that if you make $ 52,000 a year you’re too rich to get that help, the full benefit, I think that’s nonsense.”
Sanders said the thresholds should be $ 75,000 for individuals and $ 150,000 for married couples, just as they were in the first two rounds of stimulus checks signed by President Donald Trump. Those earning less than $ 100,000 and couples earning less than $ 200,000 received lower payments based on income.
“It’s also, from a political point of view, a little absurd that, under Trump, these people benefit from it, but, under [President Joe] Biden, who fights hard for the working class in this country, they wouldn’t get all of these benefits, ”Sanders said.
“From a political point of view, it is absurd to tell working class people, someone with decent union work, that they are making $ 55,000, $ 60,000, sorry you are not eligible for the program. It doesn’t make sense to me or the American people.
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Congress passed a budget resolution last week to trigger a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation, which would prevent a systematic obstruction of the Senate and allow Democrats to pass the stimulus bill without any Republican votes.
While Biden spoke of working with Republicans on the bill, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, said it was not, citing the president’s rejection of the 618 alternative spending program. billion dollars proposed by him and nine other Senate Republicans as too small.
“The administration is making it very clear that they don’t care if they have to work with us,” Cassidy told NBC’s Meet the Press. “We come in good faith with at least 10+ people joining us, and they say they don’t care. So you have this. It takes two to tango. At the moment, I’m not sure we have both for tango.
Senate Republicans noted that previous stimulus bills passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. But that only came after GOP senators tried and failed to pass their own bills without any Democratic priority, demanded that any legislation protect businesses from lawsuits if employees or customers were infected with it. COVID-19 and increased taxpayer subsidies for religious schools and other private schools. Republicans also failed to negotiate with Congressional Democrats after the House approved a $ 2 trillion stimulus package.
Biden and other Democrats insisted on the higher number, noting that too small a stimulus package in 2009, deliberately kept at a lower level to attract Republican support, hampered the country’s economic recovery after the Great Recession.
Lawrence Summers, who was Treasury Secretary under President Barack Obama, suggested that the $ 1.9 trillion package could trigger “inflationary pressures of a kind we haven’t seen in a generation.” New Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on CNN responded that her worry about inflation must take a back seat to fears of not spending enough money to fix the economy.
“My predecessor indicated that it is possible that this will cause inflation to rise. And this is also a risk that we have to take into account, ”said Yellen. “And I can tell you that we have the tools to deal with this risk if it materializes. But we are facing a huge economic challenge here and enormous suffering in the country. We have to solve this problem. This is the biggest risk. “
Recent studies by S&P Global and the Brookings Institution said a $ 1.9 trillion package would bring the economy back later this year to what it was before the pandemic. And Moody’s Analytics said the plan will help create 7.5 million jobs this year and an additional 2.5 million next year, fully recouping any jobs lost to the coronavirus.
The Republican alternative also left out Biden’s proposal for $ 350 billion in federal aid to help state and local governments pay the salaries of first responders, teachers and other public sector employees. It has been a top democratic priority.
Cassidy, who joined New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez last year on bipartisan legislation to provide such help, said on NBC that there was less support for the aid this time around, given that New Jersey’s loss of income was only 0.5%, New York’s was 1.5. % and the average decrease was 0.1%.
“It’s hard to come to a political consensus when there’s only 0.1% drop in income,” Cassidy said. “Some people will scratch their heads and say, ‘This is not justified. Let’s think of a different way of doing it. “
Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected].
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