AEI by Matt Weidinger 2/17/2023
People of a certain age might recall the 1970s TV action series “The Six Million Dollar Man.” The fictional title character, a gravely injured astronaut turned government agent, was rebuilt with new bionic parts (“we can rebuild him…better, stronger, faster,” said the show’s opening) that cost taxpayers $6 million. Fast forward 50 years and there’s a new, far pricier government agent in DC: Kamala Harris, the $21 trillion woman.
That’s the conservatively estimated cost of then-Senator Harris’ “Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act.” With the Biden administration setting a May 11 end date for the COVID-19 public health emergency, we can finally close the books on the remarkable plan Harris introduced in May 2020. She proposed sending Americans “crisis payments” each month that emergency declaration was in effect, plus an extra three months after it expired. The legislation never advanced, but if it had most Americans would have received $2,000 checks each month retroactive to March 2020 and continuing through this coming August.
Up to two parents and three children per household would have been eligible, for a maximum of $10,000 per month or an astonishing $120,000 per year. That’s nearly double the US median household income of $67,521 in 2020. It even exceeds the risible guaranteed annual income of $97,000 recently proposed by the San Francisco Reparations Advisory Committee.
More:
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/kamala-harris-the-21-trillion-woman/
