CARES Act Sent You a $1,200 Check but Gave Millionaires and Billionaires Far More

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Do you want to see how legislation that was supposed to be a bailout for our economy ended up committing almost as much taxpayer money to help a relative handful of the non-needy as it spent to help tens of millions of people in need? Then let’s step back and revisit parts of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and look at some of the numbers involved.

The best-known feature of the CARES Act, as it’s known, is the cash grant of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child for households whose income was less than $99,000 for single taxpayers and $198,000 for couples. These grants are nontaxable, which makes them even more valuable. Some 159 million stimulus payments have gone out, according to the IRS.

-snip-

But when I began looking at details of the legislation, I realized that several of its provisions quietly provided benefits that were worth much more than $1,200 to some upper-middle-class people who didn’t qualify for stimulus payments. Some other provisions provided vastly bigger benefits to the rich, to corporations and to a relative handful of ultra-rich folks.

So let me show you five provisions of the legislation that benefited the upper middle class (including yours truly); the families of Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; high-income people who make large charitable donations; and Boeing and other corporations that are showing losses; as well as indirectly benefited people who have substantial investments in U.S. stocks.

These five provisions that help the well-heeled will cost the Treasury — which is to say, U.S. taxpayers — an estimated $257.95 billion for the 2020 calendar year. That’s nearly as much as the estimated $292.37 billion price tag for the stimulus grants to regular folks. The numbers are from Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper of the financial impact that legislation has on the Treasury. (I used those figures to calculate the spending for the 2020 calendar year rather than for 10 federal fiscal years because I’m interested in today’s impact, not the projected long-term impact.)

I’m writing this now, more than two months after the CARES Act took effect, as a cautionary tale. That’s because with massive unemployment upon us and the fall elections drawing near, there’s a temptation for Congress and Trump to produce legislation that will help needy people a bit but help the non-needy a lot more by doing things like reducing capital gains taxes.

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/cares-act-sent-you-a-dollar1200-check-but-gave-millionaires-and-billionaires-far-more/ar-BB15bEML?li=BBnb7Kz

[msongs]

1. both parties voted for this stuff nt

[Igel]

3. Much of it relies on what's not said.

For example, take the charitable tax deduction bit.

Apparently, the only charitable contribution this year that has any merit at all is one that helps COVID-19 sufferers.

Nature Conservancy? Let it wither.

ACLU? Who needs it--except to the extent it helps the Important Group.

Churches and universities? Surely they're all doing okay.

Museums? They're for the elite. Screw them until they're all monuments to the Right People.

Local orchestras? Nope. Unless they play and magically cure COVID patients.

NPR and public broadcasting? Nonsense. They have no expenses during the lockdown, if their contributions dry up it's fine by Sloan.

But maybe it does help. Dunno.


It's the same for some others. For example ... It's okay for people with IRAs to have to radically draw down their pensions. They're not on welfare yet, the bastards, and if it means they have to learn to be humble and on food stamps, it just means we've made them blessed. (My father really resented his mandatory withdrawal. He was a steelworker. Got no inheritance from anybody. Paid child support to his first wife. His second wife also worked, similarly got no help from any family member. But they were lucky in that their house appreciated, they both saved--apart from paying for the part of my schooling not covered by scholarships, RAships, or TAships, or my jobs, so they had enough to get by on without his IRA.)

[mokawanis]

2. I'm amazed that so many thought the $1,200 checks were impressive

I thought it was a ridiculously small amount because a lot of people were losing months and months of wages and even losing their jobs entirely. Didn't other countries help their citizens with far more money?

[marybourg]

4. They didn't send mine yet.