One of the most important stimulus benefits that millions of Americans have relied upon to stay afloat during the pandemic expired overnight.
These are the unemployment benefits that went out to 12 million jobless Americans.
The current stimulus proposal extends these unemployment benefits out a few months and offers $300 in weekly bonus payments.
But we know that the stimulus bill is currently at a standstill as President Trump refuses to sign, largely due to his objection of the $600 stimulus payments.
Trump supports larger payments at $2,000 and Congress is scheduled to take a vote on these payments tomorrow.
Currently, we really don’t know what Congress is going to do when it comes to increasing the amount of stimulus checks.
I don’t think anybody will be surprised to see a bill pass the House of Representatives that increases direct payments from $600 to $2000. But what will happen in the Senate is a different story.
We’ve heard support for the increased stimulus checks from a few key Republican senators which is a sign that there is at least some support within the GOP.
But is there enough to get the minimum 60 votes needed to pass?
That is not so clear.
But what is clear is that there is a lot of pressure to get something done as soon as possible.
Now that unemployment benefits have expired, millions will be without much-needed aid. Also, the eviction moratorium is set to expire this week.
And then to top it all off, if the spending bill is not passed, the government will shut down 12:01 AM on Tuesday.
So the next couple of days are extremely crucial for millions of Americans and for the country as a whole.
If the Senate does not approve of these larger stimulus payments, President Trump could resort to a pocket veto which would essentially allow the stimulus proposal to die.
This will prove to be extremely unpopular and it could even affect the Georgia runoff happening in the first week of January to the detriment of Republicans.
So I would be very shocked if President Trump allowed the pocket veto to take place.
Therefore, I think Trump will take some type of action next week and we will see the proposal passed in some form by the end of the week. But as we all know, this is 2020 and anything could happen.
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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.