United States Bidens Covid Stimulus Bill

[Cherico]

So what was all in the bill?

kick backs for america's biggest companies.

 

[prinCZess]

So what was all in the bill?

At least the 'big' ones that get reporting:

-1400 dollar direct payments to those making up to 75,000
-400 dollar additions to unemployment
-8.5 billion dollars to the CDC for vaccine-related stuff and 14 billion for vaccine distribution
-350 billion to state & local governments (criticized for coming on-top previous stuff in this vein yet to be spent, and poor targeting and/or being a 'bailout' to the politically popular governments)
-130 billion to public schools to reopen (criticized for coming on-top previous stimulus in this vein that hasn't been used yet)
-Increasing child tax-credit value
-34 billion for the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces

Some stuff floating about but not really getting reporting because of being smaller.
-Roughly a billion for Housing Assistance for rurals and natives, about 10 billion 'Homeowner Assistance Fund' through 2025 for various stuff.
-2.5 billion for 'socially and economically disadvantaged' businesses.
-15 billion for airlines and air-contractors.
...
...Honestly, there's an extended go-through that starts HERE. It's a partisan read-through, but legit about the only thing I could find that actually goes through the bill offering any kind of summary with referencing of more than just the 'highlights' above from major media outlets (a highlight reel that misses...Billions upon billions of dollars in spending, perhaps even the MAJORITY of spending...Because our media is fucking worthless)

 

[Arch Dornan]

Porked to the extreme isn't it?

 

[Zachowon]

So...
Gov give free money that is never used..

 

[Captain X]

At least I didn't see anything in there about "foreign aid" like the last one.

 

[Husky_Khan]

So what is 1.9 trillion divided by 330 million anyways?

I wanna know how much my $1400 stimulus check is going to cost.

 

[Abhishekm]

So what is 1.9 trillion divided by 330 million anyways?

I wanna know how much my $1400 stimulus check is going to cost.

A couple hundred under 6 grand. Though only families making under 75k are eligible so minus 50 million or so from that count.

 

[Husky_Khan]

We should just be happy I guess that Biden is cutting into poverty, a defining moment for his Presidency. Likely unprecedented.

 

[ParadiseLost]

Anyone - whether left or right - who listens to the WaPo after its purchase by Jeff Bezos is crazy.

Jeff Bezos's intent with the WaPo is pretty clear, given that wanting to manage it more directly is part of his justification for stepping down from Amazon. He sees is at as a testing ground for manipulating its readership. There's just no other reason for a personality like Jeff Bezos's to have bought it.

 

[Husky_Khan]

A couple hundred under 6 grand. Though only families making under 75k are eligible so minus 50 million or so from that count.

On the plus side, there's some groups of people (prisoners and illegal aliens) that the Democrats want to get stimulus checks that aren't traditional citizenry.

“Dylann Roof murdered nine people. He’s on federal death row. He’ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats’ ‘COVID relief’ bill,” Cotton tweeted. “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber, murdered three people and terrorized a city. He’ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats’ ‘COVID relief’ bill.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) claimed that illegal aliens will not receive stimulus checks because they “do not have Social Security numbers,” therefore, “they do not qualify for stimulus relief checks.”

Cruz and Durbin got into it on the Senate floor with Durbin accusing Cruz of lying. Cruz asked if Durbin would yield for a question, which Durbin refused to take.

A top GOP Senate source told The Daily Wire that Durbin is wrong because, according to the source, the Democrats’ bill would give stimulus checks to migrants who come to the U.S. legally on an authorized work visa and then overstay their visa, which then makes them an illegal alien. However, while they are legally in the U.S. working, they may receive a Social Security number. The Social Security Administration states on their website that noncitizens are able to apply for Social Security numbers.

Democrats Reject Republican Attempts To Prevent Stimulus Checks From Going To Prisoners, Illegal Aliens | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

 

[Husky_Khan]

Apparently Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden feel betrayed by Biden for its exclusion of the Hyde Amendment in the WuFlu Stimulus Bill, thus allowing juicy federal monies to fund abortions.

Evangelicals For Biden 'Feel Betrayed' By Biden Doing What He Promised

The Evangelicals for Biden supported Biden for president even though he announced his support for taxpayer-funded abortion on demand last year.

thefederalist.com

This is sad, feeling betrayed that Biden chose fulfilling the promises of his Left leaning base instead of a tradcon minority he's not beholden to in the least. Also... very unforeseen as well. If only these Evangelicals could've voted for a political party that actually endorses the pro-Life viewpoints they find so important to advocate on behalf on. Sad.

 

[Husky_Khan]

A ProPublica investigation found hundreds of fake farms receiving fraudulent stimulus monies.

In all, ProPublica “found 378 small loans totaling $7 million to fake business entities, all of which were structured as single-person operations and received close to the largest loan for which such micro-businesses were eligible. The overwhelming majority of them are categorized as farms, even in the unlikeliest of locales, from potato fields in Palm Beach to orange groves in Minnesota.”

‘Deely Nuts, Beefy King’: Hundreds of Fake Farms Received Fraudulent Stimulus Loans, Exposé Reveals | Brad Polumbo

The fact that the federal government sent millions of dollars to fake farms with silly names in absurdly unrealistic locations is almost funny. But when one remembers that federal taxpayers are all on the hook for $42,000 in new debt each, there’s nothing humorous about it all.

fee.org

A byproduct of all of the Covid Stimulus bills I'm assuming.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Honestly, I'm gonna say that's not so bad. Only $7 million across the entire United States is chump change. There's always going to be some scams that fall through the cracks and this number for a nation the size of the US isn't much.

 

[ParadiseLost]

Small farms are frequently involved in scamming the government.

A friend of mine who is a tax preparer told me the most common tax scam in his area is an ALF (Absurd Loss Farm). Its when the owner reports a small amount of farm income, but a huge amount of farm expenses, which they can use to artificially lower their taxable income.

So they'll report $500 in income from renting a field used for farming or go to the local farmer's market and selling food, and then they'll report $10,000 in farming-related expenses - equipment, maintenance, and such.

And its all BS of course, so they essentially get $9,500 in income reduction.

Sometimes the farm might technically exist (like, they are actually selling food), but often times the farms are only being run/reported so that they can generate absurd losses to offset the income from the owners real business.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Yeah, I did tax preparation for quite a few years and it was a truism for us that certain people could somehow operate at a loss for decades on end, the two most common (among my customer base) being farmers and truckers*. I had farmer customers who somehow rolled up in brand new trucks, wearing fine clothes, who had lost money every year on their farms for forty years straight.

*Truckers have a weird set of special tax laws because, due to how much time they spend in it, they can treat their truck as their house and get an entire second set of homeowner deductions on their truck. They also have a number of very trucker-specific tax deductions, for instance, care for their dogs are tax-deductible on the grounds that a dog acts as a vital part of their home and business (ie. it keeps thieves out of the truck).

 

[Cherico]

Yeah, I did tax preparation for quite a few years and it was a truism for us that certain people could somehow operate at a loss for decades on end, the two most common (among my customer base) being farmers and truckers*. I had farmer customers who somehow rolled up in brand new trucks, wearing fine clothes, who had lost money every year on their farms for forty years straight.

*Truckers have a weird set of special tax laws because, due to how much time they spend in it, they can treat their truck as their house and get an entire second set of homeowner deductions on their truck. They also have a number of very trucker-specific tax deductions, for instance, care for their dogs are tax-deductible on the grounds that a dog acts as a vital part of their home and business (ie. it keeps thieves out of the truck).

Since we rely on both truckers and Farmers for the whole not dying thing I'm willing to let this slide.

 

[Bacle]

Since we rely on both truckers and Farmers for the whole not dying thing I'm willing to let this slide.

Same.

If people can use tax law to report a lot of expenditure, and not much taxable income, and do it all legally, more power to them.

Anyone who pays more in taxes than they legally have to is a fool.

 

[LordsFire]

I don't like complicated tax exemptions, loopholes, and write-offs.

That said, there's high strategic utility in having an incredibly active farming economy, especially as globalization frays. I wouldn't be against making food production tax exempt on the whole.

 

[Navarro]

I don't like complicated tax exemptions, loopholes, and write-offs.

This is why every civilised country should shift towards a flat tax.

That said, there's high strategic utility in having an incredibly active farming economy, especially as globalization frays. I wouldn't be against making food production tax exempt on the whole.

Indeed.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I don't like complicated tax exemptions, loopholes, and write-offs.

That said, there's high strategic utility in having an incredibly active farming economy, especially as globalization frays. I wouldn't be against making food production tax exempt on the whole.

I agree with both of those. Reasonably speaking, for maybe 80% of the population the IRS has all the information it needs to perfectly calculate your taxes ahead of time. If you don't own a business or itemize deductions filing taxes could be accomplished by clicking a "file taxes" button on their website and entering your bank information to either pay or receive your refund. It's just an extremely long and inefficient equation that involves looking up multiple charts at various places, unless you have a few specific things it's the kind of work computers excel at and humans suck at.