More stimulus checks? California Democrats say money should go to ‘those who need it’
California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both Democrats, aren’t crazy about the Republican plan to send most people another round of economic stimulus payments, saying the proposal won’t always reach the people who need the money most.
“The Republican proposal is insufficient and comes months too late for people who need it. Bills come in every single month during the pandemic and so should help from government,” Harris said.
Harris, regarded as a leading contender to be picked by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden next week as his running mate, is a key backer of a plan to provide a guaranteed monthly income to middle and lower income people during and briefly after the coronavirus pandemic.
Feinstein is willing to support another round of stimulus payments, but wants them to go to those who need them most, not higher income people.
Senate Republicans this week unveiled an economic relief plan that would send payments of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per dependent child. The payments would go to single people earning less than $75,000 and joint tax filers reporting less than $150,000 in income. Individuals with incomes of up to $99,000 and joint filers earning up to $198,000 would get a lesser amount.
Democrats largely backed such payments earlier this year, and the Democratic-run House approved another round in the economic relief legislation it approved in May.
But Democratic lawmakers also want other tools to help ease the economic pain.
“I come from a big state, I keep in touch. Not one business person has contacted me and said you ought to do this,” Feinstein said of another round of stimulus checks, before she had seen the GOP plan.
It would be more effective, she said, to continue the $600 a week in unemployment payments that jobless people were receiving from late March until last week. Republicans want to reduce those payments to $200 per week for up to 60 days, then provide 70% of lost wages.
Feinstein thought the $600 payments should continue. “People who need the help should get it as opposed to those who don’t,” she said.
She has urged Republicans to temporarily extend the $600 payment until a more permanent solution is adopted. And she’s warned against tying the benefit to a formula.
“I am told that implementing such a formula would likely delay benefits payments by several weeks at minimum. This would be unacceptable in the middle of an economic crisis,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
And, she said, “a formula that would result in fewer benefits going to workers in states with outdated unemployment benefit systems would be problematic.”
State officials have not been able to say how long it would take to implement any new system.
Harris is an author of the Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act, which would provide a monthly payment to those who need help.
The plan, co-sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., would send $2,000 a month for anyone with an income below $120,000 during the coronavirus pandemic and for three months once it ends. Parents could also receive $2,000 per child for up to three children.
The payments would be retroactive to March, and those earning more than $100,000 would get a lesser amount.
The payments earlier this year went through the Internal Revenue Service and determination of income relied largely on what was reported on tax returns. The Harris plan would allow a U.S. resident to get a payment, whether or not they filed a recent tax return. Recipients would need a Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number..
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 1:40 PM with the headline "More stimulus checks? California Democrats say money should go to ‘those who need it’."
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