Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Emergency UBI same day FED announces $1.5 trillion Stimulus package for Wall Street — Steemit
Yesterday, on March 12th, Tulsi Gabbard introduced H.R.897 to provide emergency financial relief of $1000 a month to average Americans — in contrast to the FED’s announcement on the same day that proclaimed the intention to inject $1.5 Trillion into the stock market over 48 hours.
Gabbard’s motion, intended to provide 209 million American adults financial relief during this crisis, would spend 1.5 trillion dollars after over 7 months, which is much more moderate compared to the Fed’s time-frame of 2 days. While the FED required no congressional approval for this gargantuan level of spending, H.R897 is still awaiting approval — and has yet to garner a single cosponsor.
As, The Week noted, “It’s the rich and the powerful of Wall Street who benefit most directly from the Fed’s willingness to act and go big. The central bank can prevent the financial system from coming apart, which is certainly a good thing. But it can do little for the average person’s livelihood. Not only is that a galling and unjust situation, but, like all trickle-down strategies, its economic value is decidedly limited.” This dynamic is what led Gabbard to propose her Emergency UBI bill which would actually provide direct emergency economic stimulus for individual Americans — rather than stockholders who are not living paycheck to paycheck and have some assets to cushion themselves from the economic fallout.
Before the resolution was introduced, Rep. Cortez took to twitter to demand emergency UBI as seen in H.R.897 as well as debt relief and the guarantee of healthcare.
The resolution that Tulsi introduced to the house would acknowledge the direct impact on everyday Americans — many of whom are already economically struggling and desperately need relief — that can be expected from this outbreak which will force many to miss work and struggle to pay bills and afford rising prices of food and medicine. The proposed legislation would go on to say that “the Federal Government should more readily provide and prioritize direct economic relief for the American people, the majority of which are living paycheck to paycheck, rather than bailing out Wall Street banks and large corporations and industries”
The main components of the resolution would read
(1) The Federal Government should create and provide an emergency Universal Basic Payment of $1,000 per month available to all Americans until the Department of Health and Human Services declares that the COVID-19 outbreak no longer presents a public health emergency;
(2) The Universal Basic Payment should be a temporary economic stimulus package aimed to empower Americans directly and immediately; and
(3) The Payment should be made to every United States citizen above the age of 18 years and should be nontaxable.
After introducing the resolution, Gabbard would be quoted to say,
“While some in Washington are focused on taking care of Wall Street, everyday Americans get left behind. That’s wrong. Instead, we must act swiftly to provide a temporary universal basic payment of $1,000 per month to every American adult to help them weather the storm created by this crisis. Taking care of all Americans will stimulate our economy during this downturn. I’ve introduced a resolution that prioritizes people so our economic relief is placed directly into the hands of every American, rather than getting stuck in bureaucracy or ending up in the pockets of big corporations.”
She would reaffirm the sentiment that Americans need direct relief on twitter:
It is worth noting that Italy has already suspended all mortgage and debt payments until the crisis blows over and Australia has free testing through the nation’s public healthcare. Meanwhile, reports are flooding in of Americans racking up hundreds or even thousands of dollars in medical bills after going to the hospital to get tested, or being released from a government mandated quarantine.
“Too much attention has been focused here in Washington on bailing out Wall Street banks and corporate industries as people are making the same old tired argument of how trickle-down will eventually help the American people. But really, as has happened so many times before, it’s the American taxpayer that gets left holding the bag, struggling and getting no help during a time of crisis.”
Separate from Gabbard’s legislation, Ro Khanna and Tim Ryan would introduce similar legislation that would employ an earned income tax credit, that is a tax relief or refund, to supply between $1000 and $6000 dollars to individuals earning less than $65,000 a year. In response to these demands for direct relief to everyday Americans, House speaker Pelosi had promised to approve of legislation that guaranteed two weeks of paid sick-leave as well as free testing for the coronavirus to ease the financial burden Americans are having to, or going to have to, come to face with — with or without approval by the minority republican opposition, as reported by NewsWeek.
After talks with secretary of treasury Mnuchin, Pelosi would later go on to inform that a deal had been made with the president and republican legislators, although details of which have not been released as of yet. “We are proud to have reached an agreement with the Administration to resolve outstanding challenges,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to fellow legislators.
Assumably, it would “include two weeks of paid family sick leave, up to three months of paid family and medical leave, free coronavirus testing, food aid, unemployment insurance, increased federal funds for Medicaid and increases protections for frontline workers.” However, Pelosi said nothing of the cost-sharing of treatment, instead only focusing on testing, which the president had already addressed.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer reaffirmed Pelosi’s stance in a letter to his colleagues, “If we reach agreement, we’ll vote on it. If not, we will vote today on our bill, which incorporates nearly all of what the Administration and Republicans have requested.” While paid family leave would certainly be welcomed, Tulsi’s UBI bill had not been mentioned by Pelosi, or even Cortez who had called for a “No-strings UBI program” the day before Tulsi’s legislation was introduced, along with some other desirable measures such as a temporary freeze on evictions.
Americans seem to relish the idea of an emergency UBI, with #EmergencyUBI trending on twitter at the moment of writing. Former presidential candidate Marriane Williamson would endorse Tulsi’s resolution. Andrew Yang, while not specifically endorsing Gabbard’s legislation by name, had also advocated for the idea of an emergency UBI yesterday — with his proposal of a general UBI being at the core of his presidential bid.
Just hours prior to the time of writing, Yang had recently retweeted a tweet that mentioned Gabbard and AOC after stating that “the coronavirus pandemic had added fuel to the fire calling for UBI”, and would proceed to tweet:
Naturally, Gabbard’s introduction of the motion, which is most similar to Yang’s UBI relative to the other economic relief proposals by democrats, has drawn the attention and appreciation of many Yang Supporters. It should be known that Gabbard’s bill only calls for the temporary implementation of UBI for the duration of the coronavirus crisis so that Americans can survive this unprecedented pandemic and the economic fallout that is sure to follow.
If you think the government should support the average citizen as much as corporate stockholders, contact your local house representative and urge them cosponsor and/or endorse Gabbard’s H.R.897 bill.
UPDATE: Ilhan Omar would go on to endorse and cosponsor the resolution, and propose a bill that compliments the resolution.
Originally published at https://steemit.com on March 14, 2020.
