The American Rescue Plan: Another Inadequate Relief Bill.
Democrats increased means-testing and lied about $2,000 checks and increasing the minimum wage to $15. However, this bill is better than nothing and benefits have been directed away from the 1%.
On March 6th the Senate voted along party lines to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Four days later the House passed the same bill. It’s expected to be signed into law by President Biden on Friday. The bill is supported by 76% of voters because it provides some necessary assistance to the public and its benefits are directed away from the 1%. However, it has been met with criticism from activists and those most in need because Democrats decided to increase means-testing for relief checks, make them $1,400 instead of $2,000, and lied about raising the minimum wage to $15. They also failed to reinstate pandemic unemployment insurance at the initial level of $600 per week.
Even though Democrats lied about several promises and means-tested relief checks more than Republicans did under Trump, outlets like The Washington Post have manufactured consent in support of this bill by reporting on it with headlines like, “Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over business”. It’s accurate to say that the benefits of this bill are directed away from the 1%, unlike the CARES Act which included a more than $4 trillion bailout for corporate America. However, the media never reported on how Trump “showered money on Americans” when he was giving the public more assistance than Biden currently is.
This isn’t to say that Trump’s relief bills were better than Biden’s first one. The vast majority of the benefits from Trump’s relief bills went to the 1% and corporations with connections to politicians. For example, while the CARES Act provided people with $600 per week in unemployment insurance and less strict means-testing for relief checks, it also created a more than $4 trillion slush fund to bailout corporate America. Biden’s relief bill provides the public with just $300 per week in unemployment insurance compared to $600 per week under the CARES Act and more rigorous means-testing for relief checks, but it doesn’t include a trillion-dollar bailout of corporate America.
President Biden’s first COVID-19 relief bill was able to pass without any Republican support because Democrats used the budget reconciliation process, so it only required 50 votes to pass instead of the usual 60. As a result, Republicans played no role in passing, or preventing the passing of this must-pass legislation. Democrats will say that they were unable to include provisions like universal $2,000 checks or a $15 minimum wage because they don’t have Republican support, but they don’t need the minority parties’ support to pass a bill through budget reconciliation.
For example, in 2017 Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law without any Democratic support because Republicans used the reconciliation process. Using this tool to force through legislation that the minority party opposes is nothing new, but it’s not easy to do and a party can only use it twice during a calendar year.
Since budget reconciliation can be used so rarely, it’s extremely important that certain provisions aren’t excluded from the process, because if they are it’s unlikely that another opportunity to pass them will occur anytime soon. This is why it was so devastating when eight Democrats voted against including a $15 minimum wage in Biden’s relief bill. It’s also why not using this opportunity to guarantee everyone healthcare or providing them with a living income is truly shameful.
More than 14 million people have lost their private health insurance during the last year of COVID-19, bringing the total number of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured to nearly 100 million. Before the pandemic, 78% of the public was already living paycheck to paycheck and more than eight million people were forced into poverty just between July and October of 2020. While Biden’s relief bill provides the public with some much-needed assistance, it falls short of providing adequate assistance by the Democratic Parties’ own choosing.
Democrats, including President Biden, are using obscure figures like the Senate Parliamentarian as cover for the fact that they don’t support a $15 minimum wage. They’re saying they respect procedure and won’t overrule the parliamentarians’ advice, but they don’t mention the fact that the parliamentarian is a random unelected official that can easily be overruled. In fact, when George W. Bush was trying to pass tax cuts through reconciliation in 2001 the parliamentarian attempted to stand in the way and the Republicans simply fired him and proceeded to pass their tax cuts.
Democrats should act the same way when it comes to following through on passing legislation that’s supported by the vast majority of the public and would improve quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. Universal healthcare, a $15 minimum wage, and $2,000 a month universal basic income would do more to reduce all forms of poverty than a means-tested child tax credit and one-time $1,400 check.
The unfortunate reality is that corporate Democrats like Biden don’t support monthly checks, or even a $15 minimum wage. The fact that they’re unwilling to use their authority to overrule the parliamentarian to raise the minimum wage proves this. House progressives have also been reluctant to use their power to force a minimum wage increase, recurring checks, or emergency medicare expansion by standing in the way of the House passing the Senate version of Biden’s relief bill.
House progressives would only need to organize a group of about six representatives to block the passage of the bill unless it includes a $15 minimum wage, recurring checks, or emergency medicare expansion. Corporate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are perfectly willing to use their power block legislation to prevent things like monthly checks, universal healthcare, or increasing the minimum wage, but progressives are never willing to do the same when it comes to forcing the inclusion of policies that are supported by a majority of the American public.
(Increasing the minimum wage to $15 was included in the relief bill that passed the House at the end of February, but House Progressives voted to pass the Senate version of the relief bill earlier this week. The Senate version does not include a $15 minimum wage)
Under Biden’s plan, you can receive a one-time $1,400 check if you make under $80,00 and you can qualify for a $3,000 child tax credit if you have children ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 for children under six. However, even if you qualify for the check and have two kids that’s just $8,600 for an entire year, and the bulk of it would come as a tax credit which is not the same as direct cash relief. Over the course of a year that amounts to just $716 a month. Also, these policies expire at the end of 2021 and all of the eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance and the relief checks are based on 2019 tax returns. So if you haven’t filed your 2020 tax returns and made more than $80,000 in 2019 but have since lost your job, you won’t be able to qualify for assistance.
Supporters of this bill are touting the claim that the child tax credit will cut child poverty in half, and statistics show that it will lift an estimated four million children out of poverty. However, since the United States has an inadequate system for measuring poverty the claim that this bill will cut child poverty in half is overstated. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), the U.S. “measures poverty by a narrow income standard that does not include other aspects of economic status” such as debt and material hardship. The NCCP says that the current way the U.S. measures poverty was developed in the 1960’s “and is now widely acknowledged to be flawed.”. Current guidelines set the poverty line for a family of four at $22,050 a year, but even in more affordable states like Iowa, it costs $42,748 for a family of four to meet their basic budget needs. Regardless, even if the claim that this bill would cut child poverty in half were accurate, in total the cost of the provision that is responsible for doing this is $219 billion, so what’s Biden’s excuse for not spending $438 billion to eradicate child poverty completely?
The most consistent relief that’s included in this bill comes in the form of the $300 weekly unemployment insurance program. This provides people with incomes of up to $80,000 with up to $1,200 a month through September of 2021. This provision is one of the best aspects of this bill because it provides those who qualify with a more consistent flow of income compared to other parts of the bill that only provide recipients with a one-time payment they’re forced to ration.
This bill will have a positive effect on the fight against poverty, but the reality is that Democrats were in complete control of passing it and they still lied about several promises made to the public. Even though Democrats were in complete control of passing this relief bill they’re still means-testing it more than Republicans did under Trump. They lied about $2,000 checks and they lied about increasing the minimum wage to $15. Not to mention universal healthcare is nowhere in sight, not even progressives are fighting for it even though 70% of the public and 88% of Democrats support it. Instead of fighting for universal healthcare, House Progressives caved to party leadership by supporting subsidies for Cobra premiums and cheaper healthcare exchange premiums as part of the ACA. They didn’t even fight to force a $15 minimum wage increase in this bill even though 67% of the public supports it, and the increase they were talking about wouldn’t even go into effect until 2025.
Walker Bragman, who writes for The Daily Poster and Jacobin tweeted in response to the Senate passage of the bill:
“Trump’s most generous relief bill included $600 UI and $1,200 checks. Biden’s first relief bill is now $300 UI and $1,400 checks but for fewer people. There are tax credits and other measures, but those are the most immediate/tangible parts of the legislation for many voters.”
This bill is obviously better than nothing. It includes more funding for vaccinations, assistance to small businesses, schools, and farmers. However, Congress has the power to legislate away massive amounts of suffering and they continually choose not to utilize their power to the highest extent because their corporate donors profit off keeping people in debt and poverty. This legislation will indeed provide some much-needed assistance to some, but it fails to address the systemic issues that cause poverty and indebtedness to run rampant in the United States. Democrats could’ve used this opportunity to guarantee everyone healthcare, send them monthly $2,000 checks, and raise the minimum wage to $15. Doing that could completely eliminate poverty.
Democrats are in the position to achieve these things, but according to Bragman, “Biden isn’t willing to fight for it and House progressives aren’t willing to play hardball with him.”
Saying that this an adequate “relief” bill would be like saying the person who shot you in the chest and handed you a bandaid provided you with adequate “relief”. The ruling class allows millions to suffer in easily preventable conditions, ones they’re responsible for creating. Anyone who stands in the way of universal healthcare and meaningful poverty and debt elimination deserves all the wrath the people give them.
Matt Dougherty is an independent journalist and managing editor of The Bull-Moose Note. You can subscribe here to get free articles delivered to your inbox. If you’d like to support our work that’s is always made available for free, you can become a paying subscriber for $3, $6 or $12 per month through Patreon or you can give us a one-time donation through Venmo here.