A Weekly Stimulus Check?

As COVID-19 cases dwindle and the chances of the economy returning to normal looks more fruitful many people are ready to return to work. But not quite as fast since some small business are still on soft ground. The Trump administration said Tuesday, it’s considering a weekly back-to-work bonus for Americans, part of a range of options the administration is considering to revive the economy as the country starts reopening. More or less a weekly stimulus check.

“It may well be, it’s something we’re looking at very carefully,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday when asked about the proposal put forward by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. “Senator Portman has a good idea, he understands incentives and disincentives.”

Portman called for unemployed Americans returning to work to keep $450 out of the $600 a week they are receiving in additional federal unemployment benefits as a kind of “return to work” bonus but it would expire in late July.

This falls in the sense of fears and claims that a lot of laid-off employees are facing greater unemployment than they did during the pandemic.

“I’m hearing from a lot of small business employers in Ohio who are ready to go, ready to start reopening again, that it’s been very difficult for them to get workers to come back when they can make more, sometimes substantially more on unemployment insurance,” Portman told Fox News.

The administration is considering a number of measures to stimulate the economy, in the midst of discussions of an economic stimulus “phase 4” to help boost the economy and get Americans back to work.

Kudlow reiterated that, among other measures, President Trump is also considering a payroll tax vacation until the end of the year.

But it’s unclear how congressional democrats would get along with such measures. This month, a $3 trillion stimulus package passed by the Democrat-controlled House but one almost certainly doomed to failure in the GOP-controlled Senate. That package included a $600-a-week extension of the extra unemployment benefits.
Kudlow said he expects that even an expansion to such government benefits by the conclusion of the talks would not be in the final bundle.