- There are a few plans for sending direct payments to Americans during the coronavirus pandemic floating around Washington. Finally, a good idea that could actually help people!
- The problem is, everyone is moving too slowly. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is talking about getting payments out April 30th.
- The hold up is that legislators want to means test the money to make sure the wealthy don't get money they don't need.
- Normally that would be fine, but we don't have time for that right now. People need to make rent April 1.
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Finally, Washington is embracing a good idea for how to help Americans and the economy during the coronavirus pandemic - send everyone a check.
The problem is no one is talking about moving fast enough. The end of March is approaching, and Americans will have bills due on April 1. Missing those will make coming back out of this economic crisis much more onerous when the coronavirus subsides.
The White House has one plan for direct payments as part of a roughly $850 billion to $1 trillion stimulus package. That plan reportedly includes $1,000 payments to Americans totaling about $250 billion.
While Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said at a press conference on Tuesday that the White House wants to get those checks out within two weeks, he later reportedly told Senate Republicans the government can get checks out by the end of April. The hold up, it seems, is that Mnuchin wants to means test the money to ensure only the people who need it get it.
Whatever the reason, his plan is just not good enough. It's not fast enough, and if the pandemic persists it may require him to go back to Congress and ask for more money. That takes up precious time no one has.
Senate Democrats, including Corey Booker from New Jersey, Michael Bennett from Colorado, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, have another plan. It's more generous, sending $2,000 to all Americans in the first wave. Then payments of $1,500 and $1,000 if the pandemic persists. This is more like it.
But the Senate Democrats' would also means test all the payments - meaning they would phase out for higher incomes. But this slows down administration and adding paperwork or technical hurdles could result in some Americans who should get the payments falling through the cracks. Politi cans need to recognize that we don't have time to dither in getting Americans money. They need cash now. This means testing has to go, at least for the first payment.
Everyone is going to need money anyway - big business, small business, community organizations and individual families. We shouldn't *discriminate.
On Tuesday I wrote about what coronavirus did to China's economy, and the big takeaway is the economy has to keep going in any way, shape or form during extreme social distancing. That means allowing families and companies to make debt payments, and pay for anything they need while people aren't working.
Once the economy is turned back on there's going to be a demand crisis. That's what China is experiencing now. If we keep money in people's pockets we'll start that off on much better footing. And when Americans are ready to engage in human interaction, they'll be able to put money right back into the economy again.
If Republicans and Democrats come together to send Americans direct payments, I will believe that we've perhaps learned something from the financial crisis. And it will give me some hope that in the face of desperate times, Republicans can let go of their ideologically driven impulses for the greater, immediate good.
I'm not putting any bets on it though.
*I do think we should attach some strings to bailouts of some industries. The airline industry has been making travel miserable for customers while blowing money on expensive stock buybacks for years now. They should have to make some concessions to get cash.)
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).