Here's What You Need to Remember: “Our country is still deeply struggling. The recovery hasn’t reached many Americans. . . . It took nine months for Congress to send a second stimulus check, and just moments to spend it. Moving forward Congress needs to make recurring checks automatic if certain triggers are met. No more waiting around for our government to send the help we need.”  

Over the past year, Congress has green-lighted the delivery of three coronavirus stimulus cash payments—a $1,200 check in April 2020, $600 in December, and the current $1,400 payments under President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

That’s already $3,200 in the pockets of most Americans—and with that in mind, can U.S. taxpayers really expect to collect another cash windfall?

Currently, there has been no hint of another round of payments from the White House. In fact, during a recent press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki appeared to be noncommittal regarding future stimulus checks.

“We’ll see what members of Congress propose, but those are not free,” she told reporters.

More recently, seven Democrats within the House Ways and Means Committee—led by Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.)—sent a letter to Biden that urged him to include recurring direct payments in his highly ambitious $1.8 trillion American Families Plan.

“The pandemic has served as a stark reminder that families and workers need certainty in a crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “They deserve to know they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.”  

In March, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and other Democratic senators contended in another letter that “a single direct payment will not last long for most families.”

They also pointed to polling data that showed that 65 percent of Americans support recurring stimulus payments. “This includes support from 54 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents. Economists support the idea too,” they said.

It appears that recent polls and surveys are backing such claims that millions of Americans are still scraping by. TransUnion’s research has revealed that roughly four in ten Americans are still continuing to experience income loss compared to before the start of the pandemic, while a report put together by the Economic Security Project has suggested that additional rounds of stimulus have the potential to lift twelve million U.S. residents out of poverty.

In addition, ordinary citizens fed up with their precarious financial situations are taking action to demand more rounds of stimulus checks.  

In one such example, more than 2.2 million people already have signed a Change.org petition that is calling for $2,000 recurring monthly stimulus payments.  

“I’m calling on Congress to support families with a $2,000 payment for adults and a $1,000 payment for kids immediately, and continuing regular checks for the duration of the crisis,” the petition stated.  

“Our country is still deeply struggling. The recovery hasn’t reached many Americans. . . . It took nine months for Congress to send a second stimulus check, and just moments to spend it. Moving forward Congress needs to make recurring checks automatic if certain triggers are met. No more waiting around for our government to send the help we need,” it added.  

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. This article first appeared earlier this year.

Image: Reuters