Please Listen, President Biden: Americans Want Another Stimulus Payment
Bonin’s petition now has over 2.3 million supporters, an increase of around 300,000 in the last month, and could become one of Change.org’s largest-ever petitions if it reaches 3,000,000 signatures.
Here's What You Need to Remember: The third round of federal stimulus payments has seen the IRS distribute almost 167 million payments totaling roughly $391 billion, with more payments expected to come soon even as it appears likely that the IRS is winding down its campaign to distribute the payments. At least 80 Democrats in Congress have expressed their support for additional stimulus payments in the future.
A number of online petitions calling for additional stimulus payments are continuing to generate support. As of early last month, these petitions included a total of roughly 2.3 million signatures. More recently, that number has grown to over 2.6 million.
The largest of these petitions was started by Denver restaurant owner Stephanie Bonin and calls for $2,000 payments for all American adults and $1,000 payments for children, followed by regular stimulus payments sent out monthly for the remainder of the pandemic. According to Bonin, the country is still struggling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic recovery that has been fueled in large part by the third round of federal stimulus payments has not yet reached many Americans.
Bonin’s petition now has over 2.3 million supporters, an increase of around 300,000 in the last month, and could become one of Change.org’s largest-ever petitions if it reaches 3,000,000 signatures.
A number of smaller petitions alongside Bonin’s that also call for further stimulus payments have also seen increased support in recent weeks.
One such petition that was started while former President Trump was still in office, which has attracted just over 73,000 supporters, calls on the President to “be a hero to the people” by fighting for monthly $2,000 payments, while another with close to 83,000 signatures calls on the President and Congress to enact immediate monthly payments. A smaller petition with just under 30,000 signatures similarly calls for the passing of $2,000 monthly payments until the end of the pandemic.
A separate petition makes note of the existing support for regular payments among some Democrats in Congress and calls on both President Biden and other lawmakers who have not yet indicated their support for such a measure to back the move. The petition currently has over 56,000 signatures, an increase of 3,000 in the past month.
A final petition takes a slightly different approach, calling for monthly payments of $2,000 specifically for unemployed Americans and for those making less than $130,000 per year. Support for this petition has more than doubled since early May, and it now has over 64,000 signatures.
The third round of federal stimulus payments has seen the IRS distribute almost 167 million payments totaling roughly $391 billion, with more payments expected to come soon even as it appears likely that the IRS is winding down its campaign to distribute the payments. At least 80 Democrats in Congress have expressed their support for additional stimulus payments in the future.
Eli Fuhrman is a contributing writer for The National Interest. This article first appeared earlier this year.
Image: Reuters