I like this idea and would vote for it.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a member of the progressive "Squad," is pushing a bill that would give everyone in the U.S., including undocumented immigrants, $2,000 a month during the coronavirus crisis followed by $1,000 a month until a year after the coronavirus pandemic ends.
Tlaib and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., reintroduced the Automatic Boost to Communities Act in the House of Representatives Tuesday.
The bill "would be funded directly from the Treasury with no additional debt issued by minting two $1 trillion coins, and additional coins as necessary," Tlaib and Jayapal said in a press release.
"One in seven families don’t have enough to eat. More than eight million people have been pushed into poverty. Nearly one million new people are filing for unemployment every single week," Jayapal said in a statement.
"This unprecedented moment demands an unprecedented response. People don’t only need relief, they need stability, certainty, and predictability and the ABC Act delivers them exactly that."
Cosponsors include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Jamaal Bowman of New York.
Since identifying every single person in the U.S. (as well as U.S. citizens abroad) who are eligible for the program is a difficult task, Tlaib's office said the U.S. Treasury will create a list of individuals with the help of the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the FEC and other agencies, including state-level DMVs. Undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for more than three months would be eligible.
Tlaib has previously criticized the Biden administration on the subject of coronavirus relief.
"One time survival checks don't cut it when the bills haven't stopped coming in every month. We need monthly, recurring, $2,000 survival checks," Tlaib wrote on Twitter earlier in March.
"Quit messing around and send people the survivor checks we promised them," Tlaib wrote on Twitter in February.
"Using 2019 income data totally ignores the economic destruction of the pandemic and eliminates the promise to bring relief as was repeated nonstop in the campaign to win Georgia."
