No stimulus checks expected now?

Today is the first day that lawmakers have returned to the Senate to try to agree on another round of stimulus funding.

A big question now looming is whether or not we will see another round of stimulus checks go out to Americans.

Unfortunately, according to some experts, it looks like the answer to that question will be no.

Goldman Sachs projects the next stimulus bill will come in at $1.5 trillion. They predict that it will include $400 per week in enhanced unemployment benefits, additional small business aid, and some state fiscal aid.

Importantly, they predict that there will not be a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks.

“There appears to be lukewarm support for another round of payments to individuals and concerns regarding the overall size of the package could crowd out an additional round of checks,” wrote the Goldman Sachs researchers.

“While there is not strong opposition to another round from any of the main parties to the negotiations, it is not the top priority of any group, either.”

This prediction is interesting but I wouldn’t put too much stock into it.

The projected price tag that Goldman Sachs predicts of $1.5 trillion is higher than the price tag that Republicans proposed in the Heals Act.

Recall that the act also contained stimulus checks with increased eligibility.

I do think it is significant that the unemployment rate has taken a nice drop from 10.2% in July to 8.4% in August. (The estimate for August was 9.8% so that was an unexpected positive result for the economy.)

So there are factors cutting against more stimulus checks but it still feels like the country needs one final jolt before getting back on the track to normalcy.

President Trump has already proposed utilizing $300 billion of leftover funds from the last stimulus package to fund direct payments and it is clear that the White House is in favor of those payments.

Democrats are also still clearly in favor of more direct payments.

So opposition would likely be focused within the GOP and we know that they previously included stimulus checks in their proposal that was priced around $1 trillion.

And as I just mentioned, that amount is $500 billion under the projected cost of the next stimulus package.

So while I think it is still very questionable about whether or not more checks will go out, I think there’s still reason to be optimistic that it could happen.

H/T

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