Bad Politics, Bad Economics, Bad Morals, Bad People

Just idiotic.

Let’s just say that Biden has a far different conception of how this would be perceived than reality. “I’m not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to the American people,” he reportedly said on a call with House Democrats yesterday, referring to his support to keep the checks at $1,400. But changing the targeting most certainly would break that promise. (some would say conceiving of the checks as “topping up” to $2,000 after a $600 check in December is already breaking the promise.) Nothing changed between December and today for the millions of people who would suddenly become ineligible for support. They’ll just get sacrificed.

And the question about that is: why? Who is this for? Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the more tightly targeted checks would cost $420 billion, as opposed to $465 billion. That’s what we’re fighting over? $45 billion in a $1.9 trillion package, to deny middle-class people (almost definitionally speaking; they make just over the median income) relief? That’s the holdup?