$1,400 Stimulus Checks: Will Joe Biden Push For Another Round?

Stimulus Checks

$1,400 Stimulus Checks: Will Joe Biden Push For Another Round?

A fourth-round of stimulus checks has the potential to lift more than seven million Americans out of poverty. Will Biden try and make it happen? 

President Joe Biden is aiming to spend an estimated $4 trillion across two different infrastructure bundles that are being referred to as the Build Back Better package.

However, even as the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury are busy sending out nearly a hundred sixty million coronavirus stimulus checks under the American Rescue Plan, some lawmakers in Washington are pressuring the president to include another round of direct stimulus payments in the package.

Know that to date, Congress has green-lighted the delivery of three stimulus checks to most Americans—a $1,200 check in April 2020, $600 in December, and the current $1,400 payments.

With an eye on giving even more financial help to millions of cash-strapped Americans, twenty-one Democratic senators recently signed off on a letter to Biden in support of recurring stimulus payments.

“Almost six in ten people say the $1,400 payments set to be included in the rescue package will last them less than three months,” the senators wrote.

“We urge you to include recurring direct payments and automatic unemployment insurance extensions tied to economic conditions in your Build Back Better long-term economic plan,” they added.

The senators also pointed to recent polling data that revealed that a majority of Americans strongly support recurring stimulus payments.

“Polling shows 65 percent of Americans support recurring cash payments ‘for the duration of the pandemic.’ This includes support from 54 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents. Economists support the idea too,” they wrote.

Furthermore, in a January press release, Rep. Ilhan Omar noted: “A one-time payment of $2,000 is simply not enough. The American people are counting on us to deliver transformative change, and we need to meet the moment by delivering monthly payments of $2,000.”

According to recent research from the financial services firm TransUnion, four in ten Americans are still continuing to experience a loss of income compared to before the pandemic started more than a year ago.

“38 percent of U.S. consumers said their household income remains negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. … While 5 percent of the population has thrived during the pandemic—reporting no income drop and better than planned finances—another 3 percent are devastated by reduced income and don’t think they’ll ever recover,” the report wrote.

It also found that those who are most negatively affected by the pandemic will use the cash for basic living expenses, such as groceries, utilities, and the mortgage or rent. Roughly one in five adults are “in limbo,” which TransUnion defines as those who have lost income and are unsure how their finances will recover—if at all.

In another new analysis conducted by the Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute & Brookings Institution, it contended that a fourth round of stimulus checks has the potential to lift more than seven million Americans out of poverty.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.