On Monday, a Change.org petition seeking $2,000 monthly stimulus checks reached 3 million. The petition, started two years ago by restaurant owner Stephanie Bonin, reached millions of signatures, illustrating the pandemic’s devastating financial impact on Americans.
In the petition, adults should get $2,000 in monthly payments, while children should receive $1,500 per month. It also requests that these benefits begin immediately and continue throughout the course of the pandemic.
Fourth, Fifth Stimulus Checks
Business Insider reported that according to the Economic Security Project, providing Americans with a fourth and fifth stimulus check may keep 12 million Americans out of poverty. That would also aid in the reduction of disparities in poverty, income, and wealth between white Americans and people of color of other races.
It was also reported that legislators and economists agreed. According to an open letter from over 150 economists issued in 2020, recurrent payments are important to ensuring the US economy’s security during a pandemic and should be implemented immediately.
Republicans and Democrats are currently working on a new coronavirus relief bill, though it will most likely be targeted specifically at restaurants and other small enterprises this time around. Whether it will gather enough political support to become legislation is still up in the air.
Previous Rounds of Stimulus Checks
As reported by Newsweek, representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties endorsed the first round of $1,200 direct payments, which were distributed to the majority of Americans in March 2020.
Those stimulus payments were followed up in December 2020 by another $600 payment, this time backed by both Democrats and Republicans, that was distributed to the vast majority of Americans. Then, last spring, after Democrats gained complete control of both Congress and the White House, they authorized an additional $1,400 stimulus payment without the support of any Republican members of Congress.
The report also revealed that the December jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated a 3.9% unemployment rate. It was down from 4.2 percent in November. Also, it’s close to the US’s historic low of 3.5% before the COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020.
However, Al News reported that a new wave of payments has not been proposed by Congress, and President Biden’s Build Back Better proposal, which has been on hold since 2010, is focused on infrastructure rather than direct stimulus.
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