While it hasn’t been decided, Biden has signaled that he is willing to negotiate on lowering the income levels that will qualify for the $1400 stimulus check:
Are there new income limits to get a check? Not yet — nothing has been decided. Still, Mr. Biden has expressed a willingness to negotiate, with the president saying he would insist on $1,400 checks while suggesting he was willing to direct the checks to people who need the most help.
That could result in Democrats lowering the income threshold to qualify for a payment to single people who earn $50,000 or less and married couples with income of $100,000 or less, according to The Washington Post. If that occurs, millions of households who received the prior two stimulus checks likely wouldn’t qualify for the third.
This reporting has led to dozens of people contacting CNBC angry over the fact that they might not qualify for the latest round of pandemic giveaways:
“I was banking on that money,” says Marie, who lives in Maryland. “The fact that they’re changing it and setting this strict cutoff is totally unreasonable for anybody who lives in a high-cost-of-living area. It’s wrong.”
She is one of dozens of people who reached out to CNBC Make It to express frustration about the possible change to eligibility for the $1,400 payment. Many, like Marie, say Democrats would be reneging on their campaign promise to provide $2,000 in direct relief payments to struggling Americans if they send them to fewer people.
“Taking money away from people after you’ve promised it to them is not the way to start,” says Marie, referring to the fact that Democrats now control the White House, House of Representatives and Senate. “I think this is a horrible plan that threatens security to many people.”
Brian Jensvold feels similarly. The 32-year-old makes just over $60,000 per year as an IT specialist in Oregon. He also rents out two bedrooms in his home, and, before Covid, occasionally worked as a ride-share driver for extra income. During the pandemic, he lost his tenants for a few months when they could no longer afford rent and he stopped driving part-time due to safety concerns.
Jensvold says it is “short-sighted” for politicians to base stimulus check eligibility off of 2019 income when millions of lives changed dramatically in 2020. It would be better if some people who don’t need the money got a payment, rather than for those who do need it to be left out completely, he says.
“It almost feels like a targeted attack to those of us in the middle,” he says.
Democrats are reportedly “splintered” over whether to lower the income eligibility thresholds, according to The Washington Post. More moderate lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., argue lowering the income limits would prevent wealthy families from getting money they don’t need. But other Democrats say that a $50,000 limit for individuals and $100,000 for couples is too low and would exclude many households that desperately need the money.
Democrats break a promise after they get elected? Say it ain’t so Joe!
This is really an odd circumstance. Democrats love to spend money and they love to give it away. It’s almost a principle of theirs to give as much as they can away to bankrupt this country. But now they want to hold back? Well I guess since they’ve won the election, they got what they want already.
I’d normally conjecture this is because they have to negotiate with Republicans, but that’s not the case. Democrats are using budget reconciliation to ram this through so Republicans really don’t get a say – unless 50 Democrats aren’t in full agreement on it. But that’s still a dem-on-dem problem. They control everything in this process and they are clearly debating amongst themselves.