Since the start of the pandemic, the federal government has passed three legislative packages that included stimulus checks for most Americans, including two last year during the Trump Administration, and a third this spring by the Biden Administration.

Ever since the American Rescue Plan passed, there have been calls for a fourth stimulus check, possibly to pass as part of the Biden Administration’s proposed infrastructure package. However, the Biden Administration has resisted taking that step, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki seeming to reject the idea in a recent press briefing.

However, a recent viral social media post claimed, falsely, that another round of stimulus checks are on the way.

USA Today picked up the story, looking into the claim that there will be a “4th stimulus by Memorial weekend 2k a person.”

The possible source of confusion is that there are indeed child tax credit payments going out to families later this year. Those are recurring checks, and some media accounts have used the word “stimulus” to describe them, but they are not stimulus checks in the sense that they go out to almost everyone in the country.

Meanwhile, the president has proposed in his American Families Plan to extend those child tax credits through 2025, although a competing proposal from Congress has called for those credits to be made permanent.

“We urge you to include recurring direct payments and automatic unemployment insurance extensions tied to economic conditions in your Build Back Better long-term economic plan,”  several members of Congress wrote to President Biden in a letter back in the spring.

“This crisis is far from over, and families deserve certainty that they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads,” the letter continued. “Families should not be at the mercy of constantly shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions.” 

The eighth and most recent round of stimulus payments from the American Rescue Plan totaled 1.1 million checks, with a total dollar amount of more than $2 billion. That total included 570,000 "plus-up" payments, for people who already received a stimulus check but were entitled to more money because their financial picture changed between 2019 and 2020.

Of the 1.1 million checks that were sent out in the latest batch, 600,000 were delivered via direct deposit, with the rest delivered to taxpayers via paper checks.

“The IRS will continue to make Economic Impact Payments on a weekly basis,” the IRS announcement last week said. “Ongoing payments will be sent to eligible individuals for whom the IRS previously did not have information to issue a payment but who recently filed a tax return, as well to people who qualify for ‘plus-up’ payments.”

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.