As we expected, Senators Josh Hawley and Bernie Sanders both attempted to get a standalone bill for $1,200 stimulus checks passed today.
This duo represented a rare union between Democrats and Republicans especially on the issue of stimulus checks.
Right now, Republican and Democratic leaders are attempting to finalize a stimulus package that will likely contain direct payments of around $600-$700 per person.
But senators like Hawley and Sanders believe this is too small of an amount and have actively been pushing for $1,200 stimulus checks.
“What we did back in March, that every senator voted for, $1,200 for every working individual, $2,400 for working couples, $500 bucks for kids, and dependents,” Hawley said.
“It’s the least that we can do. It should be the first thing to do.”
Unfortunately, Senator Ron Johnson put an end to the vote by objecting.
(Under the Senate rules, one senator objecting to the motion is enough to block the vote from happening.)
The objecting Senator cited his concerns over the rising deficit as the justification for his objection.
He also claimed that the effort should be more targeted.
“Anything we consider for this additional package […] ought to be far more targeted,” Johnson said.
“We are mortgaging our children’s future. I think we need to be very careful about mortgaging it further when we aren’t doing it in a targeted fashion.”
Sanders actually tried to get the vote to happen again later on but it resulted in the same outcome.
If you were looking for an indication on whether or not $1200 stimulus checks would still be an option, this is a strong indicator that we will see smaller checks go out.
I wouldn’t say that it is impossible but it certainly does not look like checks above $600 or $700 will be going out per individual.
The good news is that it looks like dependents will still get an allowance of $500 or somewhere in that range so that will be good for some people.
It seems the plan is still to reach a final agreement over the weekend so hopefully we will hear some big news in just a couple of days.
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Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.