The fatal flaw of Senate GOP's cash bailout bill
by Tiana Lowe
| March 19, 2020 06:46 PM
Despite criticism within the party, Senate Republicans have decided to incorporate means-testing in their direct cash bailout bill for consumers. Yet their plan will not only take an unnecessarily inefficient amount of time, contrary to a need-blind universal basic income, but it also uses the worst metric possible to assess need: 2018 tax returns.
Those who reported earning less than $75,000 in 2018 would receive $1,200 plus $500 per child. Cash payments then phase out for incomes approaching six figures -- but again, as reported in 2018.
This means that an investment banker earning a quarter million today could get a full $1,200 check because he was in grad school in 2018, while a small business owner whose doors just shuttered could receive nothing because sales were decent two years ago.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-fatal-flaw-of-senate-gops-cash-bailout-bill
