Rashida Tlaib wants everyone, including non-citizens, to get $2,000 a month starting now

[SouthBayDem]

Source: Detroit Free Press

On the heels of Congress' approval of a $1.9-trillion plan to address the fallout from COVID-19, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that, if passed, would provide monthly payments of $2,000 to every American during the crisis.

"Our residents shouldn't have to play a waiting game on the question of their survival," said Tlaib, D-Detroit. "If the last year has shown us anything, it's that our families are in dire need."

The measure, which Tlaib calls the Automatic Boost to Communities (or ABC) Act and is cosponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington State, is a longshot to say the least. Democrats hold only a slim majority in the House, and the Senate, where a 60-vote threshold is needed to pass most bills, is evenly divided at 50-50.

But the legislation may continue a developing discussion in Congress over the possibility of someday authorizing direct, recurring payments such as those proposed in last year's presidential campaign by current New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/23/rashida-tlaib-covid-payments/6967951002/

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[Budi]

2. Well that's a popular claim anyway!

[marble falls]

3. Where do I sign up? I'm not greedy, about $500/month'll cut it for me!

[apnu]

4. Get it to the floor or make the GOP filibuster it every day...

... then talk about nothing else but this until the media picks it up and the GOP has to answer there why they are blocking it.

We’ll see them change their tune fast.

This would be even better if we had a talking filibuster.

[Steelrolled]

5. Democratic leadership would never let this proceed.

[SCantiGOP]

34. I hope not. N/T

[justhanginon]

6. Anybody run the numbers as to cost? I tried but my calculator exploded!

[OnlinePoker]

23. $8 Trillion a year based on current U.S. population of 333 million. n/t

[Mr.Bill]

26. Make it for adults only and put an income cap on it.

[JohnSJ]

7. Like defund the police, another gift for the republicans

[redstateblues]

13. That idea will help the Republicans win back the House

Terrible messaging. As usual

[JohnSJ]

19. Absolutely

[JohnSJ]

20. Absolutely. There is no way that the populous would subscribe to the idea that undocumented people

should receive the 2000 dollars

[CaptainTruth]

39. My wife is a non-citizen, she's a green card holder, & she's received the stimulus checks.

She also pays about 10x the income tax I do, because her specialized business makes a lot more money than mine.

I get a tad offended when folks assume "non-citizen" automatically means "undocumented" or "illegal." There are about 14 million non-citizen legal permanent residents (green card holders) in the US.

[JohnSJ]

43. Your wife isn't a undocumented person, and she has a social security number. She is also a

legal permanent resident. She is entitled to the stimulus check

The article used the term non-citizen, not me.

Even excluding that part, her Andrew Yang like guaranteed universal income of 2000 dollars a month is going no where

[zebrapa]

37. Terrible Messaging Indeed

a primer on how to lose elections.

[Kahuna]

31. Yep. Someone recently floated cancelling mortgage debt...

[TimeToGo]

42. Good grief

People need to be smarter or we are doomed.

[aocommunalpunch]

8. Good pressure, Rep. Tlaib.

Drag the conversation to the left. Shift happens.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Poverty should be wiped out

at least on the nutritional level with modest housing subsidies. This would help the economy more than giving money to people making $150k a year, more than QE-Forever to juice asset prices for rich people. It would be as helpful to American households as Obamacare and would free up labor to produce output. Nothing motivates like freedom from worry and anxiety, or at least a little help with it.

Some right wing economists are worried about inflation, but I no longer agree. Replacing the wages lost to the pandemic only brings the economy back to Jan 2020. I expect to see economic growth, wage and productivity growth, and inflation only in food and clothing. I say this because this is a different economy than the 1970s. We have abundance, sometimes a glut of things. You can't have inflation when goods are plentiful.

[George II]

10. Best way to accomplish this is to get it through committee and to the floor, whip members....

....to support it, have a vote and get it passed and sent to the Senate.

[Steelrolled]

15. Going to be tough going without Nancy Pelosi on board.

[Gruff B. Gus]

45. .

Link to tweet

[George II]

63. That's a tweet almost a year old and months before Harris was chosen by Biden to be...

...his running mate.

You're presenting it as though it's current and as Vice President. It was also before many people received their very first stimulus check.

[arlyellowdog]

11. Raise the pay of essential workers instead

The disabilities community has been devastated this last year. We fought for heroes pay, desperately trying to keep caregivers who could make more on unemployment. The fight should be to keep high pay for essential workers. Giving everyone $2000 a month is a really ignorant idea. Sorry, the year has been hell for the disabilities community.

[AZLD4Candidate]

27. Every time I hear "essential workers" all I can think of is Schindler's List

As a Jewish man who lost family in the Holocaust, those two words give me shakes to my core.

[arlyellowdog]

50. Every time I think of Essential workers

I think of Brenda, who stayed with 5 severely autistic men, often by herself for 5 weeks because all the other workers went on unemployment until we got the Virginia legislature to approve essential worker pay to get other workers. We have given Brenda essential worker pay out of our savings. Oh, by the way, all 5 men had Covid. Brenda considers herself essential, but I’ll relay your snarky comment.

[AZLD4Candidate]

53. It wasn't snark. I'm considered "essential" being a teacher

I have been making this comment because, being a history teacher and teaching this subject, this is what Jews were called in the Holocaust: Essential and Non-essential.

To me, all jobs and all people are essential.

Please relax a little.

[arlyellowdog]

62. Republican answer.

Not all jobs are essential in a crisis. That was the crap of legislators who tried to deny heroes’ pay. I cannot “relax” because we cannot get caretakers for disabled. We need an extension of heroes’ pay. Your answer is like “all lives matter,” a way to screw over a population.

[Indykatie]

12. This Latest Idea is Nothing But a Cudgel for the GOP to Beat Up Dems and Brand Us as Socialists

Why float these unreasonable ideas that force our Dem leaders to have to respond to them thereby creating soundbites for the right.

[Steelrolled]

16. Why float these unreasonable ideas... ?

Twitter. Got to keep it moving. Need retweets. Need views. Need likes. General election is less than 2 years away! /s

[obnoxiousdrunk]

14. How do I get

Kevin McCarthy to be speaker ?

[JohnSJ]

21. Exactly

[PoliticAverse]

17. I'll take things not happening for $2,000 Dr. Oz... n/t

[left-of-center2012]

18. We could do an 'Oprah'. "Everybody gets a car !"

[VarryOn]

22. If this happens, I'm going into the "Help Wanted" sign printing biz...

This much aid would absolutely take workers out of the economy. $2,000 for every American? A family of four getting $8,000 month?

[ripcord]

24. I'm perfectly willing to stimulate the economy

Rocketry supply vendors count right?

[bamagal62]

25. No way that will happen.

[Skittles]

28. feeds into the "people want free stuff" narrative

indeed

[trof]

29. And this money is coming from...where?

The treasury department needs to buy more printing presses.

[MichMan]

32. They just need to mint a few trillion dollar coins every now and then

Voila, no big deal.

[Dopers_Greed]

30. Man, Dems must hate being in power

[Steelrolled]

41. lol - took me a second to catch what you were saying.

I think they call it Self Destructive Behavior.

[WA-03 Democrat]

33. Amazing I've read

Through this thread and many comments on the messaging of “free stuff.” I believe the PR gift is “non-citizens.” This feeds into the folks giving away “Biden Let Me In” tshirts in Rio Grande, Texas astroturfing about the boarder.

So if I follow the proposal, the benefits check would be $2k per month for everyone living here? If I am here for vacation and decided by simply staying I would make $24k USD per year. Hell, bring your relatives and that covers a lot with shared overhead expenses.

May I suggest to narrowing it to 333 million US residents? That would end poverty in the richest nation-our nation - republicans, Democrats, Independents, never voted. This way the Conversation doesn’t get hijacked by the xenophobia. Get the idea and concept of a universal basic income during the pandemic, like other western liberal democracies have in place today, where they’re paying their citizens $1500-$2000 a month there’s a way to frame it.

[Historic NY]

36. Exactly....

[RandiFan1290]

47. There is no crisis at the border

You are just repeating right wing talking points on DU.

[Martin68]

38. "Every American?" That sounds unnecessary and very expensive. I would enjoy getting $2000

every month, but I can live comfortably without it. I'm not wealthy by any means. There must be many Americans who really don't need the kind of assistance. Shouldn't there at least be some kind of means testing?

[CaptainTruth]

40. This does not seem well thought through. At all.

I can maybe see an idea limiting it to legal residents, with an income cap (so it helps the poorest who really need it), & structure it like unemployment where it's a percentage of income on most recent tax return, but just to throw money at everyone? No.

[oasis]

44. Only $2000? I prefer my pie-in-the-sky with ice cream on top. $2500.

[Sibelius Fan]

46. Geez, people. It's only money, and money that would be instantly funneled back into

the economy, where retail purchases would generate state tax revenues.

You know what else would happen? People would use that $ to pay down their credit card debt, or to double up on mortgage payments, ie: getting the blood sucking creditors off their backs. Sure, Wells Fargo, Citibank and the others would be pissed that people were able to get off the credit debt merry-go-round, but so what? Every dollar a person doesn’t have to pay in monthly interest charges is an extra dollar in their wallet. Student loan crisis? A monthly stipend could ease that as well.

You know what else MIGHT happen? Congress might have to reevaluate current spending choices and make a few massive cuts here and there to the truly wasteful spending that’s been accepted as “just the way it is” for decades.

If European countries can give their citizens monthly stipends in the thousands of dollars during this crisis, why can’t we?

BTW - as far as “free” stuff goes, goods and services carry the same consumer cost whether you’re poor or a millionaire. Last I looked, millionaires aren’t paying 10x what a middle-class person pays for a gallon of milk at Ralphs. The only difference is that the millionaire can pay cash while the middle-class person may need to use their credit card near the end of the month.

[RandiFan1290]

48. It's got the right wingers whining

Must be a good idea.

[Kahuna]

49. Ro Khanna tweeted that last week.

Link to tweet

[msfiddlestix]

51. Friends on my side of the spectrum need to think through stuff in the context of political reality

we're living in before they float these things. Seriously, it's like listening to my 10 year old grand daughter what's on her wish list for when she's a grown up. Sweet Dreams darling girl, and may the force be with you.

But have at least one foot in the world of reality, and build on it slowly one step at a time, keeping in mind other factors which need to be considered.

[Voltaire2]

52. basic income is a great idea.

And it should be permanent.

[George II]

54. According to other reports, this is incorrect. She wants a one-time $2000 payment and $1000/month.

[NurseJackie]

56. Let's see what Oprah says...

[rockfordfile]

55. No way in hell would I support non-citizens getting that.

Just what we need? terrorist using our own money buying weapons to attack us.
We already have un-American right-wing traitor domestic terrorists attacking our country.

[Polybius]

57. I'd work only twice a week if this passes

But it won't.

[marie999]

58. Just what my husband and I need, and extra $48,000 a year tax free.

We are only getting $120,000 a year tax-free now. There are some people who need the extra money, but they should be the only people who get it. I am not an economist so what does another $8 trillion dollars do. Does it have any effect on inflation? What about needing to print another $8 trillion dollars a year.

[Voltaire2]

59. It would not be tax free.

Same as SS and UI, there would be taxation thresholds. What it would do is put a real and effective economic security blanket for the entire population in place with minimal bureaucratic overhead and no 'welfare shaming'.

[Calista241]

60. If everyone is getting $2k a month, do we need social security anymore?

I guess that's one way to sell it, to take the most expensive line item in the Federal budget off the books. Maybe we could up the cap on SSI taxes that stop after 130k-ish and make all income taxable for SSI.

[MichMan]

61. Don't need any government assistance programs anymore

Food stamps, Section 8 housing, Earned Income Tax Credit...all could be completely eliminated