By John Stoehr March 09, 2021
The United States Senate passed Saturday a covid relief package worth about $2 trillion.2 It is a giant piece of legislation, in size and scope, akin to the Social Security Act of 1935 in terms of impact on the farthest corners of our society. It is the sixth of six spending bills passed by the United States Congress during the covid era. Compared to the previous five combined, however, it “includes more generous direct payments for low-income Americans,” according to the Times‘ Jim Tankersley. “It is more focused on people than on businesses and expected to help women and minorities in particular.”
As much as it is a relief bill, it’s an anti-poverty bill. It represents, according to the Times, a bid by Joe Biden and the Democrats to use government to “tackle the pandemic and invigorate the economic recovery by pouring immense amounts of money into initiatives to help low-income and the middle class.” In addition to $2,800 per married couple earning less than $150,000 a year,3 the American Rescue Act extends $300 per week unemployment benefits through Labor Day4; it includes $350 billion of states and cities5; $12 billion for nutritional assistance (food stamps); $45 billion for housing assistance (including utilities); a provision allowing taxpayers to deduct from tax returns half of their childcare costs; and the makings of permanent cash payments6 to kids in order to cut childhood poverty over time by nearly half.
In addition to being a relief bill and anti-poverty bill, the American Rescue Act is a health care bill. For one thing, it would pay for 100 percent of your health insurance costs if you lose your job.7 For another, it would drop the threshold for eligibility for health insurance subsidies from 400 percent over the poverty line to 150 percent. (In other words, 8.5 percent of your income.) This will be a huge boon for middle-class Americans who have been boxed out of the Affordable Care Act because they make too much to qualify. (I tend to agree with those who called that Barack Obama’s “big failure.“) It moreover puts us on course to realizing Medicare for All without having to go through the trouble of arguing about it. Just drop the ACA threshold to zero.8 Read the entire article HERE. Click on the notes to see original sources.