Even within President Joe Biden’s White House, there’s debate about how to meet his promise to issue Americans another $1,400 each in stimulus checks.
At least two of the president’s top economic advisers, Heather Boushey and David Kamin, have privately expressed reservations about the size of the checks and at what level they would begin to phase out for higher-income people, according to three people familiar with internal discussions.
The aides worry that the checks will cost so much that there won’t be enough left over in Biden’s proposed pandemic relief bill for other priorities—supplemental unemployment benefits, an expanded child tax credit, or aid to states and local governments, the people said.
Neither Boushey, who sits on the Council of Economic Advisers, or Kamin, a deputy director of the National Economic Council, responded to requests for comment.
Outside the White House, a group of 10 GOP Senators offered a $600 billion stimulus counterproposal on Sunday that includes $1,000 checks with strict income requirements. Their plan is less than a third the size of Biden’s.
The idea of checks was once so popular in Washington that Biden pledged at the beginning of January they’d be in the mail “immediately” if Georgia elected two Democrats to the Senate. A month later, the money has emerged as a flashpoint in negotiations over Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.
The two Democrats won, and thanks in part to his election-eve promise, Biden is committed to issuing more checks. But there’s disagreement among Democrats over the amount of the checks—is $1,400 too much, too little, or about right?—and whether they should be restricted to lower-income people.
Before Sunday, Republicans had exhibited little appetite for further stimulus at all, pointing to the $900 billion package Congress passed in late December that included $600 checks—an amount many lawmakers of both parties derided as paltry, at the time.
The 10 Senate Republicans who proposed their own stimulus accepted Biden’s invitation to meet Monday afternoon, they said in a joint statement.
For Biden, there’s little about checks to debate. He told voters at a rally on Jan. 4, a day before Georgia elected Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to replace two Republicans in the Senate: “Their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2,000 stimulus check, that money that will go out the door immediately to people who are in real trouble.”
Time To Deliver
Now he has to deliver or face the consequences. The president regards the checks as not only a political imperative, but good policy: a clear demonstration that the federal government can directly help ordinary Americans, far better than a more intangible benefit such as a tax credit, according to the people familiar with the matter.
A White House official said there’s always been a dynamic discussion between Biden and his economic advisers about the parts of his proposal, adding that the president and his aides are open to feedback on the Covid package, including the potential for more targeted direct payments.
Dating back to the transition, Biden’s aides hoped a combination of more stimulus checks, reopening schools and ramping up coronavirus vaccinations would earn his White House accolades after its first 100 days in power. Many of those goals now look imperiled, as new variants of coronavirus emerge and lawmakers object to Biden’s stimulus.
Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, disputes that the president’s agenda is stalling.
“It’s hardly dead in the water,” he said of the stimulus plan in a CBS News interview on Thursday. “It’s gaining a lot of momentum on Capitol Hill. We’ve been here seven days and I think we’ve done more to advance a bill in seven days than any administration in history.”