image: AP The latest episode of The Banter Podcast is now out! After a nasty spat on Twitter with Queen of the Bernie Sanders Left, Susan Sarandon, Ben and Mike vehemently disagree over whether Joe Biden promised Covid relief checks of $1400 or $2000. Ben argues Biden's plan was always to "top off" the $600 payments from December, while Mike points to Biden's pledge that "those $2000 checks out the door immediately." Meanwhile, Democrats seem increasingly open to the idea of means testing the checks based on pre-pandemic income, which is obviously a bad idea. Fox News sees its ratings tank as its viewers seek crazier alternatives. Q-Anon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is stripped of her committee assignments by the House of Representatives after Republicans fail to do it themselves. Listen above!
While the discussion of 1400/2000 is interesting, and we should hold our politicians to a higher standard of being clear about this, and also disappointed at how late in the game this clarification came into focus, it begs the real question. Why this money and who to benefit, and that determines what should happen going forward. Is it stimulus money to prop up the economy, or aid to people impacted by the pandemic? I still have the previous stimulus checks sitting in my bank account because I'm lucky enough to only be marginally impacted. Does that need to happen again? If needs based testing means that others get 3K or more because the same money is needed in the economy, and I'll just sit on it, so be it. We've got a ticking time bomb with eviction protections and other provisions that will decimate the poor and working poor sooner than later.
FWIW, I am with Ben. I never once thought there would be a separate $2K check. I always assumed it would be a TOTAL of $2K.
And it's not enough. Biden says it's not enough. But something is way better than nothing, and nothing is what we would have had.
So far, I don't see Joe Biden caving NEARLY as much as Obama did in those early days.
And I agree with Charles Deetz as well. We could do without the money as we have not been impacted economically particularly badly by the pandemic. So means testing is fine.
I do think that Mike's suggestion of simply taxing the money depending on your 2020 tax return is the best way to handle it, but nobody elected me to decide this stuff.
Obviously Biden was saying lets give 2k instead of the 600. Should he have taken back the 600 and given a 2k check instead just to satisfy the fringe left? This is another lame excuse to rip into mainstream Democrats instead of facing any real issues.
Guys, guys, I think the mistake in your thinking about the 600/1400/2000 thing versus all the other good stuff in the Democratic relief bill is this: you are thinking like people who have way too much actual knowledge about politics and policy.
Most ALL voters are low-information voters.
I think I heard you name 5 or 10 senators in the podcast off the top of your heads and I bet you know 30 more. I would bet that 75% of people in the US cannot name ONE of their own senators.
If you asked 100 US citizens what a "fully refundable tax credit" was, how many do you think would be able to define it? 5? 2?
The only thing that most people will remember about this bill in two years is how much the check that they received was for. That's why the Republicans are doing whatever they can to muddy the process, to reduce the amount and the number of people receiving anything. Their best-case scenario is that the money is delayed as long as possible and that people actually get less under Joe Biden than they did under Trump. Then they can run their campaigns on "Biden and the Demoncrats lied to you about the checks". The Republicans still get mileage from "If you like your health insurance , you can keep it". LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS CANNOT HANDLE ANY KIND OF AMBIGUITY.
This is why the Biden and the Congress needs to go with $2000 and go full steam ahead. Every interview, every quote, all of them need to be singing the same song. Manchin and Sinema need to get the word, climb on board, or get run over. Let them vote against $2000 checks for their constituents, if they dare.
The thing Republicans are good at, and Democrats know this, FFS, is messaging. Everybody gets their talking points, and everybody follows the talking points. Senators, staffers, consultants, Fox News, EVERYBODY.
And the talking points are always simple. The billboard industry has a guideline: nine words and a picture. That's it. And six words is probably better. You cannot put more info on a billboard. And the Republicans use this guideline relentlessly for their campaigning, and they are always campaigning.
Every single Republican thought can fit on a bumper sticker. "School Choice". "Lower Taxes". "Hillary Lied".
Democrats need to go for $2000 and ram it through. And they need to resist the means-testing trap. A) because it's better to throw more money at this problem than less and B) the Dems cannot let the Repubs set the agenda.
The Dems also need to get talking points for the rest of the package that everybody can understand and USE THEM. All day, every day. Or else 2022 will be a disaster for the Dems.
While the discussion of 1400/2000 is interesting, and we should hold our politicians to a higher standard of being clear about this, and also disappointed at how late in the game this clarification came into focus, it begs the real question. Why this money and who to benefit, and that determines what should happen going forward. Is it stimulus money to prop up the economy, or aid to people impacted by the pandemic? I still have the previous stimulus checks sitting in my bank account because I'm lucky enough to only be marginally impacted. Does that need to happen again? If needs based testing means that others get 3K or more because the same money is needed in the economy, and I'll just sit on it, so be it. We've got a ticking time bomb with eviction protections and other provisions that will decimate the poor and working poor sooner than later.
FWIW, I am with Ben. I never once thought there would be a separate $2K check. I always assumed it would be a TOTAL of $2K.
And it's not enough. Biden says it's not enough. But something is way better than nothing, and nothing is what we would have had.
So far, I don't see Joe Biden caving NEARLY as much as Obama did in those early days.
And I agree with Charles Deetz as well. We could do without the money as we have not been impacted economically particularly badly by the pandemic. So means testing is fine.
I do think that Mike's suggestion of simply taxing the money depending on your 2020 tax return is the best way to handle it, but nobody elected me to decide this stuff.
Obviously Biden was saying lets give 2k instead of the 600. Should he have taken back the 600 and given a 2k check instead just to satisfy the fringe left? This is another lame excuse to rip into mainstream Democrats instead of facing any real issues.
Guys, guys, I think the mistake in your thinking about the 600/1400/2000 thing versus all the other good stuff in the Democratic relief bill is this: you are thinking like people who have way too much actual knowledge about politics and policy.
Most ALL voters are low-information voters.
I think I heard you name 5 or 10 senators in the podcast off the top of your heads and I bet you know 30 more. I would bet that 75% of people in the US cannot name ONE of their own senators.
If you asked 100 US citizens what a "fully refundable tax credit" was, how many do you think would be able to define it? 5? 2?
The only thing that most people will remember about this bill in two years is how much the check that they received was for. That's why the Republicans are doing whatever they can to muddy the process, to reduce the amount and the number of people receiving anything. Their best-case scenario is that the money is delayed as long as possible and that people actually get less under Joe Biden than they did under Trump. Then they can run their campaigns on "Biden and the Demoncrats lied to you about the checks". The Republicans still get mileage from "If you like your health insurance , you can keep it". LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS CANNOT HANDLE ANY KIND OF AMBIGUITY.
This is why the Biden and the Congress needs to go with $2000 and go full steam ahead. Every interview, every quote, all of them need to be singing the same song. Manchin and Sinema need to get the word, climb on board, or get run over. Let them vote against $2000 checks for their constituents, if they dare.
The thing Republicans are good at, and Democrats know this, FFS, is messaging. Everybody gets their talking points, and everybody follows the talking points. Senators, staffers, consultants, Fox News, EVERYBODY.
And the talking points are always simple. The billboard industry has a guideline: nine words and a picture. That's it. And six words is probably better. You cannot put more info on a billboard. And the Republicans use this guideline relentlessly for their campaigning, and they are always campaigning.
Every single Republican thought can fit on a bumper sticker. "School Choice". "Lower Taxes". "Hillary Lied".
Democrats need to go for $2000 and ram it through. And they need to resist the means-testing trap. A) because it's better to throw more money at this problem than less and B) the Dems cannot let the Repubs set the agenda.
The Dems also need to get talking points for the rest of the package that everybody can understand and USE THEM. All day, every day. Or else 2022 will be a disaster for the Dems.