How Congress Could Send Bigger Stimulus Checks, Fund School Reopening, and Save $1 Trillion

President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill took its first major step toward passage over the weekend.

In comments to reporters on Saturday, Biden urged the Senate to take "Quick action" to pass the bill after the House of Representatives passed it in the early morning hours that same day.

Biden has been pushing this message since before he was inaugurated-the basic framework of this $1.9 trillion stimulus bill was announced in early January.

Meijer's plan would send direct payments of up to $2,400 to individuals who earned less than $50,000 last year and households that earned less than $100,000.

That means removing the chaff from the House-passed relief bill could save as much as $1 trillion from being added to the national debt-and every little bit helps, considering that COVID-19 emergency spending has already added about $3.3 trillion to the deficit, according to the CRFB. Needless to say, Senate Democrats are unlikely to seriously consider any alternative to the House-passed bill at this stage.

We're likely instead to see some much more modest tinkering, after which the Senate will send the Biden plan back to the House, which will then pass the new version and send it to the president's desk.

The longer Congress delays, the more apparent it will become that the need for a major bill has evaporated.

https://reason.com/2021/03/01/how-congress-could-send-bigger-stimulus-checks-fund-school-reopening-and-save-1-trillion/