Social change is often bottoms up, starting from people and then moving through the political process. UBI is no different and the people are speaking loud and clear.
By: Yelena Dzhanova
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HIGHLIGHTS
- A petition calling for $2,000 monthly stimulus checks reached more than 2 million signatures.
- It argues that the three checks aren’t enough to deal with the pandemic’s financial repercussions.
- Senate Democrats have urged recurring relief checks to help stave off financial difficulty.
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More than 2 million people have signed a petition calling for $2,000 monthly stimulus checks to support Americans as the pandemic continues.
The petition was posted on Change.org last year by Stephanie Bonin, who owns a restaurant in Colorado.
“I’m calling on Congress to support families with a $2,000 payment for adults and a $1,000 payment for kids immediately, and continuing regular checks for the duration of the crisis,” Bonin wrote in the petition.
“Otherwise, laid-off workers, furloughed workers, the self-employed, and workers dealing with reduced hours will struggle to pay their rent or put food on the table.”
In the petition, Bonin urged Congress to issue “immediate checks and recurring payments.”
“Congress needs to make sure that we won’t be left financially ruined for doing our part to keep the country healthy,” she wrote.
There have been three rounds of stimulus checks in 15 months.
Eligible Americans received $1,400 stimulus checks in March. The Trump administration issued two stimulus checks nine months apart: The checks in the first round were $1,200, and those in the second were $600.
Congress had been slow to issue the checks because of partisan disagreements — Democrats and Republicans had different visions of the check amount and other relief measures in an overall spending package.
Bonin criticized the amount of time it took Congress to come to an agreement.
“Another single check won’t solve our problems – people are just too far behind,” Bonin wrote. “Like we’ve been saying from the beginning of this pandemic, people need to know when the next check is coming. And the best thing our government can do right now is send emergency money to the people on a monthly basis.”
Bonin’s petition garnered so much support that Change.org recognized it in its list of 10 petitions that changed 2020.
Senate Democrats have urged Congress and the Biden administration to pass recurring relief checks to help stave off the financial devastation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Supplying Americans with monthly support until they can get back on their feet can save our communities from financial ruin,” Bonin wrote.
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Original post in Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/petition-monthly-stimulus-checks-2000-signed-2-million-people-2021-5
