As we speak, Congress is working to pass President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, a broad coronavirus relief package that includes another round of payments from the federal government to help hard-hit Americans.

Unfortunately, the “austerity” crowd — you know, the people who say the government doesn’t have enough money for priority needs but who remain strangely silent when it comes to tax cuts, corporate giveaways, and through-the-roof military spending — are trying to reassert themselves.

After predictably going into hiding through four years of ballooning federal deficits with Trump in office, this crowd is proposing overly strict limits on who should receive a check as part of this next round of COVID relief.

• First: There is no amount of money we could spend to overcome the dual health and financial emergencies in which we are mired that is not worth spending for the lives that will be saved and that we will not recover many times over in restoring normalcy and reviving our economy.

• Second: We can probably all agree that people who have only gotten richer during the pandemic — like Amazon magnate Jeff Bezos and other billionaires, whose collective wealth has increased by $1.1 trillion since the pandemic began — don’t exactly deserve $1,400 from the federal government. But that is relatively few people.

• Third: What about people who had good-paying jobs before the coronavirus but who have been unemployed or scraping by with part-time work since sometime last year? (Maybe that even describes you or someone you know.) The limits being discussed could mean people like that — potentially millions of Americans — might not get a boost they desperately need right now to buy groceries, make the rent, or pay medical bills.

• Fourth: Where was all the worry about “fiscal responsibility” when Republicans jammed through Trump’s tax scam in 2017, throwing massive, undeserved tax breaks to billionaires and Big Business at a cost of over $2 trillion? That law was “means tested” in reverse, with the richest 1% of Americans seeing 75 times more benefit than the bottom 80% combined.

Here’s what Joe Biden said just this past Friday:

“If I have to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill that’s up to the crisis, that’s an easy choice. I am going to help the American people who are hurting now.”

Tell President Biden:

The American people — and our economy overall — need all the help we can get. It is better to “err” on the side of helping a relatively small number of people who may not strictly “need” it than to leave potentially millions of Americans in the lurch. This is not the time for penny-pinching to placate the “austerity” crowd, who always complain about government spending that would help everyday people but rarely utter a peep when the super-rich would benefit.

Add your name.

Thank you for taking action.

For fairness,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

P.S. For half a century, Public Citizen has been advancing policies that put the needs of everyday Americans before the greed of billionaires and Big Business. That legacy of progress and that ongoing work could not matter more right now, as our nation transitions to a Joe Biden presidency that will be as progressive as we — you and Public Citizen, together — make it. We’re also busy undoing all the damage Trump did. And, like so many nonprofits and small businesses, we continue to experience financial strain related to the coronavirus pandemic. If you can, please make an emergency donation today to support the critical work we’re doing together or even join our popular Monthly Giving program. Thank you.
 
 
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