Quote (Thor123422 @ Aug 5 2020 12:08pm)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/congress-stimulus-negotiations/index.html

Looks like we're finally seeing some movement.

Trump really wants more stimulus and unemployment. He knows this would be a crowd pleaser for the upcoming election.

The white house is also pushing to extend the eviction moratorium until December, a.k.a. until right after the election.

Pelosi is sticking firm to the original $600 unemployment

Additionally the Democrats have been pushing for a cash infusion for the post office. The post office has been banned from offering new services that compete with existing carriers, required to fund it's retirement and healthcare plan decades into the future (despite being totally self-funded), and has been kneecapped by the current postmaster general slowing down service. This is an obvious case of the post office being sabotaged and then used as a talking point for government failure, so it's probably prudent to bail them out. The post office is an absolute necessity since there's a lot of rural areas that need mail that UPS and Fedex won't deliver to.



On the student loan front
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/08/04/stimulus-package-student-loans/#508e5db873a0

The HEALS act now contains a provision to allow student loans to be repaid at a rate of 10% of the discretionary money of the individual for 20 or 25 years. This is a very reasonable and generous revamp to the student loan repayment program that I am all for, but not holding my breathe for it to pass.

Quote (SBD @ Aug 5 2020 02:30pm)

Do these relief payments actually reach most low income individuals? I used go voulenteer and prepare tax returns for free for homeless and people stricken with poverty. Many people would come with years worth of tax returns to do and many never file in fear of actually owing money due to a lack of tax education.

Based on my understanding eligibility is assessed by review of 2019 and 2018s tax returns. If nothing else is on file you're out of luck.

How is discretionary income calculated? Who decides what that is?

Quote (Skinned @ Aug 5 2020 04:42pm)

McConnell has his head in the game, on board with 600/week continued unemployment.

This should be top priority. Even at the cost of gutting other stimulus.

Quote (Thor123422 @ 6 Aug 2020 01:15)

I don't get why they don't just say "we'll subsidize unemployment to bring it up to 90% of the previous lost wage" or something so they can quiet the nay-sayers about it being a disincentive to work.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 5 2020 10:41pm)

Cap it off at something like $2000 and it's the most targetted and sensible approach. It's actually what a lot of European countries have been doing, althought the percentage varies from country to country.

I think the reason why this approach hasnt been used is that it would be trickier to implement/pull off in practice. You would need to come up with the average income over the last 12 or 24 months, which is a lot of effort in and off itself. Calculating the lost wage would be particularly tricky for those with unsteady wages like freelancers, the self-employed or small business owners.

Just sending every eligible person a fixed sum is the easiest and therefore quickest approach. That's probably why they chose this approach in a moment where getting money into the pockets of those who need it as quickly as possible has utmost priority. This is not the moment to strive for maximum efficiency in terms of fiscal spending or incentive-setting.

Quote (fender @ Aug 6 2020 07:27am)

Quote (fender @ 6 Aug 2020 13:27)

Quote (Black XistenZ @ 6 Aug 2020 09:26)

Isnt this early version of the Senate's HEALS Act from a week ago off the table anyway?

Needless to say, this comparison is biased because it leaves out the $2,000,000,000,000 difference in deficit spending between the two proposals. On this particular issue, my preferences lie closer to the House than the Senate proposal, but omitting the vastly higher price tag is disingenuous.