Key Vote: ATR Urges “NO” Vote on Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help Act

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the “Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help (CASH) Act.” ATR urges a NO vote.

This legislation would increase the $600 per person cash payments enacted in the recent Coronavirus relief package to $2,000. It would also expand eligibility of the payments from children under the age of 17 to all child and non-child dependents. This proposal is costly, ill-targeted, and unnecessary. It would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit at a time the federal government is spending more than it ever has. It would do little to help the economy recover or help Americans that truly need help.

Any Coronavirus aid should be narrowly targeted to help families and businesses that have suffered from the pandemic. $2,000 stimulus payments fail to meet this goal – they would go to Americans regardless of whether they need money, have a job, or have experienced any direct financial hardships from the pandemic.

Congress has already provided significant aid. In April, lawmakers passed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Congress passed a new $900 billion stimulus package earlier this month which included new funding for unemployment insurance and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Broad based assistance is not needed. The economy is recovering and millions of Americans are back at work. Since an April high of 14.7 percent, the unemployment rate has dropped to 6.7 percent in November. Over 12 million Americans have gained jobs since the April low. In addition, personal savings rates are extremely high – Americans saved an average of almost 20 percent of their income between April and October, more than three times the 6 percent average savings rate over the past two decades.

The federal government spent a record $6.6 trillion in Fiscal Year 2020, recording a deficit of $3.3 trillion. Lawmakers cannot continue to recklessly push legislation containing hundreds of billions or trillions in new spending.

Despite this, Democrats continue pushing to expand the size and scope of government. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has spent the year pushing the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which contained the $1 trillion state bailout as well as countless other liberal priorities unrelated to the pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden has already said that the recent $900 billion Coronavirus package is a “down payment” for more COVID-19 spending in 2021. 

ATR urges all Lawmakers to reject and vote no on the CASH act.