Give that $2400 to someone who needs it

May 2, 2020

That $2400 Cares (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act payment landed in our bank account Thursday:

We'll donate it, because we don't need it. Not because we're rich. It's just that the coronavirus hasn't hurt us financially. I'm 77 years old and my wife is 72. We are on a fixed income (thank God). Our income is from Social Security and pensions. Our investments have taken a beating, but they will come back in a few years. Our savings are actually growing because we can't go out to eat or spend money on much of anything.

It is the people who've lost their jobs and the businesses who've had to close that need the money. Why waste it on Social Security recipients - people whose income is unaffected by the shutdown? The number of Social Security and SSI recipients is 69.5 million. A $1200 CARES payment to each of them would cost $83.4 billion.

And they don't have to be needy. The adjusted gross income limit for getting the full payment is $150,000 for couples, $75,000 for individuals. Beyond that, the payment is reduced. Details here.

Part of the reason Congress is throwing all that money out there is to "stimulate" the economy - to get us to buy stuff so that businesses will start up again and put people back to work. But the reason businesses have closed down is that the government ordered them to close down, and for good reason: to stop the spread of the virus. The economy will recover when the virus is under control. In the meantime, the billions handed out by the government should be restricted as much as possible to people who really need it.

Opinion: It’s not progressive to give money to the rich - Washington Post, January 28, 2021

In my March 24 story, I wondered where that $2 trillion initial distribution would come from. It's still not clear to me. Will the government just print the money? Or borrow it? I said that printing the money would cause inflation. But the government did something similar to get us out of the 2008 recession, and that didn't seem to cause inflation. I guess the government could borrow the money. Domestic and foreign investors probably do have trillions to lend. But that money is not under their mattresses. They've got it invested somewhere currently. It is hard for me to believe they can quickly pull trillions out of their current investments and loan it to the U.S.

U.S. Treasury To Borrow $3 Trillion In 3 Months To Pay For Pandemic - NPR, May 4, 2020

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