Millions in US lose COVID-19 aid under new plan
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Millions of US households who received coronavirus-relief payments under former President Donald Trump would not get aid under a modified version of incumbent’s US$1.9 trillion aid package, analysts said.
Under a compromise with centrist Democrats in the Senate, those payments would only go to individuals who earned less than US$80,000, or couples who earned less than US$160,000.
The income cutoff had been set at US$100,000 and US$200,000, respectively, under a version of the bill passed by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Saturday.
That means nearly 9 million fewer households would get direct payments this time around, said Kyle Pomerleau, a tax analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy calculated that those payments now would help 11.8 million fewer adults and 4.6 million fewer children than the more generous version that passed the House.
But 200 million adults and 80 million children would still see benefits, the think tank estimated.
“For the bottom 60 percent of Americans, the folks who really need help, there would be basically no difference at all,” ITEP analyst Steve Wamhoff said.
The lower caps would reduce the cost of the massive package by between US$13 billion and US$20 billion, they said — roughly 1 percent of the total.
Some 162 million households received payments under the first round of payments included in the CARES Act of 2020, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
At a total cost of more than US$400 billion, the direct aid is one of the largest elements in a sweeping aid package that also pays for vaccines and medical supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and earmarks hundreds of billions of dollars to help revive the world’s largest economy.
The pandemic has killed more than 515,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work.
The bill would provide payments of up to US$1,400 per person, including children — a significant jump from the US$1,200-per-person payments approved under the CARES Act and the US$600-per-person payments Congress approved in December.
As in those earlier packages, payments fell for individuals earning more than US$75,000 and couples earning more than US$150,000. The compromise means they are phased out more dramatically.
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