Stimulus Checks

Everest Leo

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

3 February 2021

Stimulus Checks

    Stimulus checks, we've had two in the last year, everyone is familiar with them. Stimulus checks have a relatively self-explanatory name and for those who don't know stimulus checks are checks passed out by the government that are meant to stimulate the economy in times of need, like in this recent COVID outbreak. But what else is there to it? 

    Well, first let's understand what's happening right now. Republican senators have proposed a $618 billion relief plan while Democrats are have started taking steps to carry out President Biden's $1.9 trillion plan. Along with the check itself, both plans would give unemployment benefits weekly for a month, funding for schools, money for small businesses, and payment for vaccines and PPE, with the republican plan giving much less money. The Democrats also favored giving aid to state and local governments as well as an outline to get the minimum wage up to $15 per hour.

    Currently, all we know is that these plans are different, we don't know exactly which one will be decided on or how it will play out, but maybe we can learn something from the past.

    As we know, two stimulus checks have already been sent out, one in April and one in December. These checks were greatly needed by the country's people at the time, but how would a third round of money being inserted into the economy affect our nation, and is it really needed? This time around and with the previous pandemic stimulus checks, the goal of these checks is not necessarily to get you to spend money to stimulate the economy, (like in the 2008 housing crisis) but more of a way to bring aid and relief to those who needed the money, possibly for things like rent, food, or bills, etc. It was really a stopgap solution for the economic deficit of certain individuals that wasn't precise and just handed the money to anyone under a certain income bracket. And while those stimulus checks succeeded, a stimulus check now, one that would aim to, again, help people, businesses and institutions in need in need, might, as some economists say not be a good solution to support the economy.

    Some people also want to give less money to higher income households and they don't think the checks are targeted enough towards people who are truly in need of the money. Another argument is that if we are going to spend this much money on stimulus then the government should at least be more meticulous with how they distribute and handle it, rather then throwing the money out there without major planning.

    Despite all of this backlash, there is still not enough opposition against the checks for them to not happen, and some say that if we don't pass these checks we might be in a worse state due to the recession.

Sooner or later we are going to get these checks and no one can really know what they'll do to the economy in the long run, especially if we keep on receiving more in the future as some individuals predict.

    This topic is important because pumping money into the economy could heavily affect the entire U.S. economy (and possibly others) in the long run, decreasing the value of the USD, but this is just theory and these checks leave us with questions of how it will actually affect the U.S? and is this really the best way to stimulate the economy?

 

 Works Cited

 "Do Stimulus Checks Work?" The Journal. from The Wall Street Journal, 2 February 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/3c5N6E8c3HBuhrFTSPzwAZ

Seib, Gerald f. “How the Republican and Biden Covid-19 Relief Proposals Differ.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 3 Feb. 2021, 5:30 AM, www.wsj.com/video/how-the-republican-and-biden-covid-19-relief-proposals-differ/6F7BED46-4AB8-4C72-BF08-5ABA5CE7CEDE.html?mod=searchresults_pos1&page=1.