It has been almost half a year with millions of American citizens wrestling with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout that has occurred as a result of it. The hapless citizens have been thrusting their hopes on Congress- expecting them to bring around some financial relief in the form of another stimulus check. The relief could also be in the form of enhanced unemployment benefits and direct cash payment. But such a journey has been turned into a roller coaster by the POTUS, who previously slammed a door on such assistance- has again brought it open for further negotiations.
Why is the Stimulus Check In So Much Doubt?
The President is all for a revised stimulus check, as reported by the economics adviser of the White House- Larry Kudlow. Although Kudlow didn’t give out specifics about how the relief plan would go- he noted that it would definitely include a stimulus check- along with some funding for the airline industry which is currently ailing. Kudlow refused to speak more about the package for Steven Mnuchin and Nancy Pelosi would be out there discussing the nitty-gritties of it all for everyone to take notice.
After being released from the hospital, Mr. Donald Trump tweeted his support for a stimulus bill and asked the Congress to take it all the way on the 13th of October. For the observant, this was the President changing his own perspective, when the previous week he had gone in for a much more constrained series of measures- a $25 billion for the aid of airlines, $135 billion as fresh loans for minuscule businesses, and the second round of stimulus checks. His reversal of positions every other week is definitely putting a strain on the negotiations- something everyone is eager to complete before the Presidential Elections.
What Is the Democrats’ stand on the Stimulus Check?
Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, championed a much more diverse $2.2 trillion package that was immediately passed by the Democrats that were in the lower chamber. But more importantly, she scoffed at this idea of target belief that the President had put earlier. She spoke about how the indecision actually made things much worse than they were. With Steven Mnuchin coming back to the table for negotiating, and then the administration pulling the plugs out- they keep going back to square one with respect to the stimulus checks.
Economists have already warned Congress that if there is any failure in injecting another stimulus check, the economic recovery would get stalled. The pandemic is already gaining a stronghold over the country- the job growth in the USA is reaching a plateau considering most of the big businesses are laying off workers- along with the airline industry removing thousands of jobs every single month. Gregory Daco, the Chief Economist at Oxford Economics has stated that if there isn’t an accelerated job growth, or the provision of another stimulus check, businesses, and households will continue to deteriorate.
