President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats have reportedly reached a new deal that will further restrict how many people qualify to receive the $1,400 stimulus checks that are expected to go out if Biden’s American Rescue Plan is passed by Congress.
“Every American who filed individually and makes up to $75,000 will still get the full amount before it begins to reduce at incomes above that,” NBC News reported. “But rather than zeroing out at $100,000 earnings, as the House’s Covid-19 relief bill does, the Senate bill will cut off payments at $80,000.”
“For couples filing jointly, incomes up to $150,000 will still get the full amount,” the report added. “But rather than zeroing out at $200,000, the Senate bill will cut off payments at $160,000 in earnings.”
The bill will keep the $400 in extra weekly unemployment payments through August despite a push from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to cut the payments down to $300.
“Schumer took procedural steps to put the House-passed legislation on the floor, though the Senate will substitute in its own text before it finishes voting,” Politico reported. “Among the things the Senate will remove from the House bill: the $15 minimum wage increase, as well as several transportation projects, all of which were ruled out by the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian.”
Biden has faced criticism from across the political spectrum for not having sent out the stimulus checks that he said on the campaign trail “would go out the door immediately” if Democrats won the Georgia Senate runoff races, which they did.
“By electing Jon and the Reverend, you can make an immediate difference in your own lives, the lives of the people all across this country,” Biden said. “Because their election will put an end to the block in Washington, that $2000 stimulus check, that money would go out the door immediately, to help people who are in real trouble. Think about what it will mean to your lives, putting food on the table, paying rent, paying part of your mortgage, paying down the credit card, paying the phone bill, the gas bill, the electric bill.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responded to the $1,400 stimulus checks in January, after Biden made his remarks, saying, “$2,000 means $2,000. $2,000 does not mean $1,400.”
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