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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now kind of to one of the last things that Ian was talking about, a call in on the question, how do you plan to spend your new stimulus check? 646-435-7280. As you know, after nine months of debate in Washington, a second round of stimulus checks is on the way now. Some people have already received them. For most individuals earning up to $75,000 a year, the checks are worth $600. That's half of what people got in round one and significantly less than the $2,000 that President Trump and House Democrats were pushing for but it is $600.
These checks come as the pandemic rages on, the vaccine roll-out, hit snags, and a new more contagious variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country. This pandemic is not over. With all of this in mind, we want to hear your thoughts about this money. What will $600 do for you right now? If you are in that group, that's actually getting a stimulus check. 646-435-7280. We want to hear your thoughts. It'll help us report the big picture, the context of the debate of $600 versus $2,000. That debate will come back after the inauguration.
It'll also get to the divide, I think, between people who have jobs and people who don't have jobs. Is the answer different on how you'll spend your stimulus check if you're still working full-time versus if you're not? 646-435-7280. That's been one of the points of debate around these checks from both left and right. Mitch McConnell says it's socialism for the rich to give people who are making $70,000-$75,000 incomes, $2,000 checks.
There are also people from the left who say, "No, we shouldn't be giving big checks to people who still got their jobs. We should be spending a lot of money but we should be concentrating it on the people who have lost their jobs." Let's hear from you if you're employed or if you're unemployed and you're going to get the $600 check, how are you going to spend it? 646-435-7280 and we'll take your calls right after this.
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Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now to your calls on how you plan to spend your new $600 stimulus check. Marjorie in Long Valley, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marjorie. Thanks so much for calling in.
Marjorie: Hi, how are you doing?
Brian: Good, tell us about your $600.
Marjorie: My $600. It's great to have the $600. I can pay some bills like my cable bill with the late fee on it. This morning, I was saying to myself I need a steady income. If I had $600 a week that I could count on, we could possibly get $2,000. Then they fight about it right up until the very end and it's heartbreaking.
Brian: Do I take it that you're unemployed?
Marjorie: I am unemployed. I have been unemployed since March 22nd. What it says on the job boards, 100 people apply for every job that I am applying for. I work as a paralegal. 100 people still. The economy is great. 100 people are applying for every one of my jobs. I don't know, I'm just like--
Brian: I hear you and I can see all the heads nodding out there of people who are in similar positions. What you need is a better unemployment system, not a stimulus check.
Marjorie: My rent is 1,500 a month. My unemployment, it's not going to sustain it. I'm going backwards, so I need more money. I need more money in the-- I'm sorry.
Brian: No, no, that's okay. I'm going to leave it there to get some other people on but I know you speak for a lot of people. Marjorie, good luck to you. Keep calling us. Marsha in Bridgeport, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marsha.
Marsha: Hi. I'm going to use the money to pay down my son's school fees. School fees was due in September of last year and I've been unemployed since March. The school has been working with me to keep him in school. That's the first payment I'm going to make on his school fees that has been due. That's where my stimulus is going.
Brian: They've let you slide this long. Usually, not this long, but because of this, even in a private school, they're letting you wait until now. Are you employed or unemployed?
Marsha: I'm unemployed. My son goes to St. Theresa School in Trumbull, Connecticut. He's also autistic and I don't want to put him in public school. They have been trying their best to work with me to keep him in school while I pay down the school fee that was due. Sometimes I put $10 on his account, $15 on his account in good faith, but the large payment will be my stimulus check.
Brian: Marsha, thank you very much. Good luck to you and your son. Robin on the Upper West Side. Hi, Robin. You're on WNYC.
Robin: Hi, I just wanted to say a couple of things. First of all, I'm employed with Uni. I am an Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at Hunter but I still don't make enough to be over the limit. I've gotten the text and I've already spent it to help pay back to my credit card debt over this time. From public policy perspective, we should not be concerned either about socialism for the rich or about trying to target the needy in this situation. First of all, if it's just specifically about sending out these stimulus checks, which are obviously woefully inadequate.
We should send out a big of a check as we can possibly do get politically and then not worry about who gets them at this point. Hacks it back at the end of the year because, administratively, the easiest thing to do is just get money to people. The same time, we need to spend loads of money for state and local governments, which is what the Democratic Congress has been saying we can't do politically. All of this debate about socialism for the rich or targeting on the needy is very misdirected and wrongheaded.
They're so little-- no interest in looking at what policymakers and people who work on public policy say and know about these things.
Brian: Right. I'm going to go and get some other people on. I think you're echoing one of the things that Congressman Hakeem Jeffries said on the show recently, which is that he doesn't care whether somebody is unemployed or not for this check all that much because wages are too low in America anyway. While we're dealing with that massive inequality issue that's ongoing in pre-pandemic if working people up to $75,000 get another $600, another $1,200, that just narrows the gap a little bit of the perennial inequality in this country.
I don't know if that's exact same point that you were making but it's at least related. Robin, call us again. Jessica in Rutherford, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jessica.
Jessica: Hi, Brian. I wanted to say about the stimulus check that it's absurd to me. In 2019, I had a six-figure job. I didn't even get anything from the first stimulus. I got less than $200. I do not have a job in 2020 and I'm making $441 a week on unemployment. I won't get anything out of this $600 check. I think that it's just very poorly thought out because a lot of people that are unemployed this year had jobs in 2019. To base the stimulus off of your income from 2019 is just absurd. It makes no sense.
Brian: Is it only based on that? Is there no way to indicate especially this far into the pandemic that you've been unemployed for a long time and qualify that way, there's no mechanism for that?
Jessica: There's not. I've been on the phone with IRS so many times and the representative that answered the phone from IRS, everyone will tell you different things. They're all unanimous in the fact that it's based on your 2019 income.
Brian: What I have heard, I've heard this conversation with a few people. What I have heard is that I think you get a credit on your taxes once you file your 2020 taxes by April 15th but, of course, you have to wait for that. That doesn't help you right away.
Jessica: Right, exactly. I talked to the people at the IRS the other day and they said that there's a form on your 2020 taxes. That is like-- I don't know something where you can claim it then, and you might get it back but that doesn't help me all of 2019. I've been unemployed the whole year. I'm paying $1,700 a month in rent. That doesn't help me take care of my disabled brother who lives with me. It doesn't even pay for groceries for a month, $600. I just think that it was really poorly thought out and to give it back to me because of my 2020 taxes.
Hopefully, I'm going to have a job by the middle of the year. That's when I might get the money back. All of 2020, I've been really struggling.
Brian: Jessica, hang in there. Please, keep calling the shell and making your voice heard at very least. Jessica is going to get the last word. She raises disturbing scenarios that obviously so many people, not only relate to, but are going through. One of the reasons people are paying such close attention to today's Georgia Senate runoffs is that if Democrats control the Senate, some see higher direct payments to individuals as more likely. That's just one of the reasons we'll all, obviously, be watching that election return tonight. Thank you for your calls on how will you use your stimulus checks. Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
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