WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Democrats in Congress say if the federal government doesn’t do more to help the economy the consequences will be worse than what we’re already seeing, but Republicans are troubled by the idea of increasing national debt.
Democrats insist many Americans need help beyond the multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus relief packages.
“I’m leading the charge for a big structural change actually in childcare,” said Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR). “We need to help working families.”
Bonamici wants a guaranteed income for all Americans of “$2,000 a month during the pandemic.”
Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus said many immigrants who pay taxes have received no assistance.
“People with ITIN number pay $13 billion a year in taxes,” Titus said.
But they did not receive stimulus checks because they use Individual Tax ID Numbers instead of Social Security numbers.
Then there are the small towns with populations under 500,000 that did not get direct aid from the federal government. Even the states and large cities that did get federal dollars are in trouble due to major losses in tax revenue.
But Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota said there might already be enough federal money in the pipeline “to really help those states that have seen a drop in their revenue and still want to pay their teachers, still want to pay their law enforcement and they don’t want to raise taxes.”
Rounds suggested Congress allow 25% of the money already approved to be used to replace local tax revenue lost because of the coronavirus shutdown.