Tag: Economic Stimulus

Lock The Bastards Up!

A departure from my usual Sunday posts….but this is just too important to wait for later….

This country is choke full of a/holes that steal from people that truly need assistance…..the pandemic was no different.

Greed is just too string for some to resist.

The ‘pandemic crimes unit’ is fully investigating all sorts of theft of pandemic funds to be used to help the people and businesses cope with the lack of income in the trying times……

The federal government has a revised estimate of the amount of money the US unemployment insurance program lost through fraud during the pandemic: $45.6 billion. Criminals collected the money between March 2020 and April 2022 through such tactics as using the Social Security numbers of dead people, CNN reports. The estimate released Thursday by the Labor Department’s inspector general replaces the one issued a year ago of about $16 billion, per the Washington Post. Kevin Chambers, who leads pandemic-related enforcement for the Justice Department, called the findings “unprecedented fraud.”

The government distributed the money to businesses and individuals to try to strengthen the economy during the coronavirus outbreak. President Donald Trump approved $3.1 trillion in funding in 2020 and President Biden another $1.9 trillion in 2021. Unemployment fraud was so widespread that federal investigators have barely made a dent two years into the process, per the New York Times. The government announced Thursday it has now charged 1,000 people with crimes related to jobless benefits committed during the pandemic. Hundreds of people are working on fraud cases in the offices of 21 inspectors general, and other agencies are involved. President Biden last month signed legislation doubling the statute of limitations to 10 years for some pandemic-related fraud, promising thieves that the government will find them.

The hero of Mississippi, Brett Favre, is one of those creeps that in on the theft of pandemic funds…..he too needs to be locked up but will not….he will skate as he always has in the past.

These people, if found guilty, need to made to pay a heavy price for their disregard of the needs of those in trouble during the pandemic.

Enjoy your Sunday….be well and be safe…..

“lego ergo scribo”

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Closing Thought–18May21

Mississippi’s governor did what all cowards within the GOP does……he jumped on the BS that people are not working because they make too much on unemployment….

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves followed the lead of his Republican counterparts in Montana and South Carolina by announcing the state will refuse expanded federal unemployment benefits, costing unemployed Mississippians $300 a week in an effort to force them into low-wage jobs—despite a lot of data showing that Republican claims about the effects of the federal unemployment aid boost are simply false.

President Joe Biden pushed back on some of those claims in Monday remarks on the economy, saying “we don’t see much evidence” that people are staying home because of high unemployment benefits, and pointing out: “We still have 8 million fewer jobs than we did when the pandemic started.” At the same time, Biden emphasized that “anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.”

In Mississippi, businesses “report that they cannot get employees to return to work because they can earn more from combined federal and state unemployment benefits than their normal wages … These businesses are no longer suffering from a lack of demand due to COVID-19,” Mississippi state House Speaker Philip Gunn wrote in a letter to Reeves. “Rather, they are suffering from a labor shortage caused by unemployment benefits that exceed normal wage levels for productive work.”

Mississippi’s maximum unemployment benefit without the added $300 a week is $235, so the benefits that “exceed normal wage levels for productive work” end up at $13.38 an hour, just under the $13.43 an hour that the MIT Living Wage Calculator says is a living wage for one adult with no children in Mississippi.

Contrary to Republican claims that people are staying home because they don’t want to work, Ashton Pittman reports that Mississippi’s labor force participation rate is back to pre-pandemic levels. People are either working or looking for work, in other words. And nationally, the April jobs data suggests “the exact opposite” of the claim that people aren’t looking for work because they can get more money from unemployment benefits, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently noted. That’s because the highest job growth has been in low-wage industries like hospitality and food service, where unemployment benefits can outstrip wages. 

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/11/2029937/-Mississippi-dives-into-the-Republican-push-to-blame-low-wage-workers-for-the-COVID-19-economy

This spin that people do not want to work because they are making too much with it is just plain BS.

It seems they want to blame people for the shitty work environment….the GOP is killing workers with their fixation on BS.

Enough Said!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

All Those ‘Freeloaders’!

Closing Thought–13May21

We hear daily from the Trump Party about all those freeloaders that are getting off easy by getting their relief money and benefits…..that they are worthless because they use their money for luxury things like food, shelter and other necessities to live…..they are denigrated daily.

But not a word is said about those GOPers that pissed the money away….

California prosecutors are investigating abuse of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the loans given to businesses suffering under the economic crisis ushered in from the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the New York Times, one person used the government handouts to purchase a Lamborghini, Bentley and Ferrari.

“The man, Mustafa Qadiri, 38, of Irvine, was indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and six counts of money laundering, the U.S. attorney in the Central District of California announced,” said the Times.

An OpenSecrets search of Mr. Qadiri revealed he was an active Republican donor, who owns a venture capital firm, All American Capital Holdings, LLC.

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-donor-ppp-lamborghini-ferrari/

Once again this shows that the working stiffs in this country are the drag on society and the wealthy get all the benefits.

At what point do the American people wake the Hell up?

Time for that change that we all keep dreaming of with no help coming…..time for that to end.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What’s In The American Rescue Plan?

The American Rescue Plan has been signed….and to avoid any confusion here is what is in the thing….

  • What’s in the bill. The Guardian lists some of the main provisions, including an extension of $300-per-week federal unemployment benefits until early September and a temporary expansion of healthcare subsidies under ObamaCare. It also includes a major expansion of the child tax credit, which Democrats are hoping to make permanent.
  • More on those payments. USA Today looks at who’s eligible and who’s not. Low-income people who haven’t filed a tax return in the last two years may have to register via an online portal to receive payments. It’s not clear when the money will be sent out, but Biden has said many people will receive payments before the end of the month.
  • Households will get the most help. The bill includes $350 billion for state and local governments, but more than half of the $1.9 trillion will go to households, reports the Washington Post reports. Compared to earlier relief measures, little of the spending goes toward businesses.
  • Lesser-known measures. Beyond the measures making the headlines, the bill includes $5 billion for Black and other minority farmers and assistance for concert halls and independent restaurants, per USA Today, which lists 10 lesser-known provisions.
  • Surprise tax hikes. Politico reports that to offset the cost of exempting the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits from taxes, and to avoid exceeding the budget cap, Democrats tacked on three obscure, last-minute tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy, which are expected to raise around $60 billion.
  • Child poverty could be halved. In one of several measures that could cut child poverty in half, the expanded child tax credit can be received in advance even by low-income families that don’t pay taxes, meaning some families with children could receive a “European-style child allowance” of up to $300 per month, the BBC reports.
  • Benefits to the middle class. According to the New York Times, the package will help the middle class as well as the poorest Americans, with the income of middle-income families set to rise an estimated 5.5% due to tax cuts and stimulus payments.
  • Could it be too much stimulus? Some economists warn that with the economy already showing strong signs of recovery, greasing the wheels further runs the risk of creating runaway inflation, Politico reports. “If it works out well, Biden will be viewed as a hero and he’ll deserve it,” says economist Len Burman, co-founder of the Tax Policy Center. “This is the first time that we’ve ever really provided enough stimulus and the risk is that it will be too much. And inflation is a real risk. But if it works out badly, at least we’ll know the result of a grand experiment like this.”
  • The partisan divide. The partisan divide among Senate leaders was very apparent after the House passed the final version of the bill Wednesday, sending it to Biden’s desk, NBC reports. Sen. Chuck Schumer said it marked a “turning point” that return the Democratic Party to its economic populist roots and Republicans were making a “huge mistake” by opposing it, while Sen. Mitch McConnell blasted it as a “classic example of big-government Democratic overreach in the name of COVID relief.”

But some in our society worry about a gender divide while others worry about abortions or some book or worse some gender of a toy…..these people are slugs a a draw on society.

Now you have the tools to counter any of the manure spread but a Trump support or a GOPer.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Always A Naysayer

The checks will soon be issued and sent out to Americans that deserve a break from the problems this pandemic is creating.

As with any good news there is always a naysayer that has to rain on the parade…..

New COVID relief payments of $1,400 will be landing in Americans’ bank accounts soon, but Megan McArdle makes the case in a Washington Post op-ed that the checks are a bad idea. She’s all in favor of the government helping people and businesses in genuine need during the pandemic, but she has a problem with so many of these checks going to fully employed people who don’t need the money. It’s a needed stimulus, you say? Not quite in this case, she writes. We’re in the midst of a “supply shock,” not a “demand shock” marked by plunging consumer confidence. Stimulus can help the latter. But “giving money to someone who still has their job doesn’t make them more likely to go out to dinner if the reason they’ve stopped going out is that they’re afraid of the deadly virus.”

The relief money accounts for $420 billion of the relief package, roughly 20%, and it is the most “indefensible” part of the measure, writes McArdle. Small businesses, for example, could use a lot more help, but the stimulus bill delivers little on the front. Instead, most of this money will likely pile up in people’s bank accounts because they still don’t have a lot of ways to spend it. “It’s bad policy now and a dangerous precedent for the future,” writes McArdle. “And it may well do more to seed the next economic crisis than to fix the current one.” Read her full column.

There seems to always be a “Debbie Downer” with any good news…..someone just has to pee in our Post Toasties…..

Personally the bill does more than all of the “other guy” policies.

All indications are that this one bill will do more for the economy than anything since 1982…..so objections are just silly.

Then there is the “C**T of the Congress” (sorry if that is offense but it is the only word that comes to mind when her name is mentioned), Rep, Taylor-Greene……

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) repeatedly claimed on Wednesday that Americans have been “enslaved” by a COVID-19 relief bill that she claims provides “reparations” for Black farmers.

After Greene made her fourth motion to adjourn Congress, she retreated to her congressional office to record a 14-minute Facebook video for her followers. In the video, she blasted Republicans who are “annoyed” with her adjournment stunts.

“I hope you are not disappointed in your Republican representative,” she said. “And if you do find out that they voted no with the Democrats, I hope that you call them up or email them or call their office or send them a letter and let them know how you feel about them voting no.”

https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-green-reparations/

Just another worthless Repub with the IQ of a garden slug (that is being unfair to the slug)

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The New Covid-19 Relief Bill

Over the weekend the Senate voted to move forward with the relief from the pandemic….sans minimum wage thing……and the good news is the Biden says we normal peasants should expect a check soon….

After the Senate passed his coronavirus relief package Saturday, President Biden told Americans they’ll get their stimulus payments soon. “This plan will get checks out the door starting this month to the Americans that so desperately need the help,” he said in a news conference at the White House. For most taxpayers, the direct payments will amount to $1,400, and will arrive through direct deposit for Americans whose bank information is on file at the IRS, CNBC reports. That money could start to reach people within two weeks of final passage. Other payments will be made by check or debit card and sent by mail, and could take until May to arrive. The measure has to clear the House again but is on track to be signed by Biden on Tuesday.

Besides a check coming soon what else is in this bill?

The Senate approved a sweeping pandemic relief package over Republican opposition on Saturday, moving President Joe Biden closer to a milestone political victory, the AP reports. The bill cleared by a party-line vote of 50-49 after a marathon overnight voting session and now heads back to the House for final passage. Democrats said their “American Rescue Plan” would help the country defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health. Republicans criticized the $1.9 trillion package as more expensive than necessary. The measure follows five earlier virus bills totaling about $4 trillion that Congress has enacted since last spring. Highlights of the legislation include:

  • Unemployment: Expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government would be extended through Sept. 6 at $300 a week.
  • Checks: The legislation provides a direct payment to most taxpayers of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple that files jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent.
  • Government Aid: The legislation would send $350 billion to state and local governments and tribal governments for costs incurred up until the end of 2024.
  • School Aid: The bill calls for about $130 billion in additional help to schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
  • Business Aid: A new program for restaurants and bars hurt by the pandemic would receive $25 billion. The grants provide up to $10 million per company. The bill also provides $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program.
  • Testing and Vaccines: The bill provides $46 billion to expand fed testing for COVID-19 and to enhance contract tracing capabilities. It also contains about $14 billion to speed up vaccination efforts.
  • Tax Breaks: The bill would increase the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 for every child age 6 to 17 and $3,600 for every child under the age of 6. The bill also significantly expands the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021 by making it available to people without children.
  • Housing Assistance: The bill provides about $30 billion to help low-income households and the unemployed afford rent and utilities, and to assist the homeless with vouchers and other support. States and tribes would receive an additional $10 billion for homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments because of the pandemic.

There you have your new stimulus bill and how it may effect you and yours.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden’s Stim Plan

Once he, Biden, takes the oath of office he will unveil a new economic stim package which will include a $2000 check for the people that need some help badly…..

So many plans and so little help for those struggling to remain solvent……what will his plan do?

President-elect Biden’s stimulus plan is rumored to include:

  • $1,400 or $2,000 direct payments for Americans. Democrats campaigned on $2,000 checks. However, a recent letter sent by Senator Schumer to his Democratic colleagues indicated the new payment may be just $1,400 per adult, combining with the recently issued $600 payment to provide $2,000 total — rather than an additional $2,000 on top of the other stimulus aid.
  • Aid to state and local governments. This was left out of the last coronavirus relief bill because many Republicans object vehemently to it. It is a key Democratic priority. However, if rumors that Biden is hoping to pass the stimulus bill on a bipartisan basis are true, the administration may have to limit this provision of the bill to get support from across the aisle.
  • More money for schools and for vaccine distribution.
  • Help for small businesses. Some of this aid may be targeted to lower-income communities and industries hit hardest by the pandemic.
  • Rent forbearance.
  • An expansion of the child tax credit. Biden had previously proposed raising this credit to as much as $3,600 for some families. Increasing it, and making more of it refundable, have long been priorities on the left and the incoming president campaigned on this issue.

The check for us mere mortals is a sound idea….funds for state and local governments that have been struggling is another sound idea…..I want to sede just how much goes where they promise or will it go where it is not need the big corporations that have already made billions out of this pandemic.

If you would like more information then here is a source…..https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-stimulus-idUSKBN29J1B1

To say I am optimistic is a bit of a stretch…..for I have heard many promises and most have fallen well short of the promise.

All I can say….”we will see”.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–08Jan21

Have you gotten your stim check?

Some of us we wanting the $2000 and got $600.

The promise was that there may be a further expanding of the stim packages….the possible good news is we may yet get that $2000.

It got a little lost in the shuffle of Wednesday’s chaos in DC, but the pair of Democratic Senate wins in Georgia means that Americans might get $2,000 in COVID relief checks after all. In this case, that would likely mean an additional payment of $1,400 on top of the $600 that started going out late last month. “One of the first things that I want to do when our new senators are seated is deliver the $2,000 checks to American families,” Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday, per MarketWatch. Schumer is poised to become the Senate majority leader now that Democrats will have control. When this might happen remains unclear, notes the Washington Post. For one thing, the Georgia races still must be certified, and it’s possible Republican challenges will arise.

In December, Republicans led by Mitch McConnell blocked the additional money in the Senate, recounts Fox News. At the conservative Hot Air, Ed Morrissey suggests it was a blunder that might have cost Republicans control of the Senate. “Had McConnell just allowed HR9051 to get a floor vote, perhaps it might have been enough for David Perdue to win his runoff against Jon Ossoff,” he writes. “Alas, we’ll never know.” Not surprisingly, Nancy Pelosi says the House is on board with the bigger checks, as it was last month. In the first weeks of the Joe Biden administration, “we will pursue a science- and values-based plan to crush the virus and deliver relief to struggling families,” she says.

It is time to get serious about an economic recovery during this pandemic.

Be Well….Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Your Checks Are In The Mail

Closing Thought–04Jan21

This is what Bernie had to say about the pittance stim checks on the floor of the Senate…..

Sorry it is a bit lengthy but it is well worth watching……

https://youtu.be/RaTNMQRO920

I agree with Bernie….the smallness of the checks is pathetic but as they say “every little bit helps”….my favorite  thought is….

“All of a sudden, Mitch McConnell is ‘worried’ about giving a $2,000 check to someone who ‘doesn’t need it,'” Sanders tweeted Thursday. “That’s funny. He had no problem giving a $560 million tax break to Sheldon Adelson who is worth $34.3 billion. Total hypocrisy! Let the Senate vote on $2,000 now, Mitch.”

It will be interesting to see how the pandemic stim plays out in 2021.

The one thing I think will appear once again…..fiscal conservs without Trump will find their moronic voice.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Even More Stim Stuff

We all have heard the debate on whether us mere mortals would get $600 or $2000….depending on which side wins this political battle.

Personally I think we may be having the wrong debate……we should be asking just why in the Hell are rich people getting more stim money?

The issue of whether Americans will get relief checks of $600 or $2,000 is now in the hands of the Senate, and the legislative jiu-jitsu already has begun. It’s expected to play out over a few days, and how it will end up is anyone’s guess at this point. Meanwhile, a different argument has surfaced about who should get the money. Coverage:

  • A shift: Axios reports that as recently as a few days ago, it seemed “impossible” the Senate would back $2,000 checks. But that has changed with senators feeling the pressure from President Trump and their own constituents. Some Republicans may not be able to risk a “no” vote, putting the needed threshold of 60 votes in sight. However, it’s still an “uphill battle,” per Axios.
  • Support growing: So far, GOP Sens. David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, and Deb Fischer have announced their support of the $2,000 checks, reports the Washington Post. Perdue and Loeffler are under particular pressure to back the larger amounts because they face runoff elections in Georgia next week. That still leaves Democrats seven votes short, though the numbers are changing quickly.
  • Your money: So what does all this mean in terms of when you’ll get money? The Treasury may begin sending out $600 payments at some point this week, on track with its original schedule, reports the Wall Street Journal. If the final amount ends up being $2,000, the payments “will be topped up,” says a Treasury official. The first payments could go out Wednesday, though it’s possible that could change. Most would be in the form of direct deposits.
  • Wrong question? In a Washington Post op-ed, Catherine Rampell says the $600 vs. $2,000 debate is the wrong one to be having. Instead, she wants to know why rich people will be getting relief checks, too. Yes, they might not get the full amount, but even a family that earns $350,000 would get something. These nearly universal payments are inefficient, she writes. “The payments end up being a pittance for higher-income, fully employed households, yet insufficient for the households that suffered large income losses.”
  • The maneuvering: On Tuesday, Mitch McConnell rejected an attempt by Chuck Schumer to stage a quick, up-or-down vote on the larger checks. But this is just the opening gambit, with McConnell signaling he will tuck the increase into other legislation to be considered soon, per the Hill. It might, for example, be linked to the repeal of a legal shield for tech companies.
  • A slam: The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal (which opposes larger checks) is seething at Trump for putting McConnell in a bind. Holding a vote “would split the GOP caucus and upset fiscally conservative voters,” the editors write. McConnell could instead opt to block a vote, but either way “it amounts to a Donald Trump in-kind contribution” to Schumer and Joe Biden. All of this also puts Georgia’s two GOP senators in danger of losing their runoffs, the editorial adds. If the GOP loses its majority, “Republicans across the country should know to thank Mr. Trump for their 2021 tax increase.”
  • Unfazed: Trump is keeping up the pressure. “$2000 for our great people, not $600!” he tweeted Tuesday morning. “They have suffered enough from the China Virus!!!”

I still do not see why billionaires needed subsidizing.

But the good news is the stim checks are said to go out on Tuesday…but they will be smaller than wanted….thanx to …..you guessed it….the Senate.

Stimulus payments are on the way, Steven Mnuchin says. The Treasury Secretary announced Tuesday that the first stimulus payments of up to $600 per person would be arriving in bank accounts within hours, the Hill reports. “These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week,” he tweeted. For those without government-registered bank accounts, “paper checks will begin to be mailed tomorrow,” he said, adding that starting later this week, people will be able to check their payment status at IRS.gov/CheckMyPayment.

“These payments are an integral part of our commitment to providing vital additional economic relief to the American people during this unprecedented time,” Mnuchin said in a statement, per CNBC. The Treasury Department says full payments of $600 per individual, $1,200 per couple, and $600 per child will be received by individuals with a gross adjusted income of $75,000 or less for 2019 and couples with an income of $150,000 or less. ” For filers with income above those amounts, the payment amount is reduced,” the department says. President Trump, congressional Democrats, and some GOP lawmakers have called for the payment to be raised to $2,000, but a vote on a measure to boost payments was blocked in the Senate Tuesday.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”