By Steve Otto

We can finnally expect a stimulus check in the mail. I have heard from family members who really hate President Joe Biden, yet have supported the passing of the stimulus check. They are all looking forward to getting their check. Not all these anti-Biden family members are supporters of former President Donald Trump. The Trump supporters I know have pointed out that he has supported a larger stimulus chech than either his own party or the Democrats. But that still does not mean they all like or liked him.

I’m not sure what motivated our past president to support the larger amound of money. He was often very hard to figure out. But I did notice the there were Republicans who, to this day, claim the stimulus package is to expensive. Who is it too expensive for? That is the real question. The taxes come from all of us working people. It is there money—it is our money that most of us paid taxes into. Almost everyone I know, reguardles of whether they like, liked or did not like Trump or Biden, want to get stimulus money. Why not. We all need it.

The pols show that most Americans support the stimulus package.

Just a Third Say It Spends Too Much:

”As the House of Representatives prepares to give final approval to the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, a sizable majority of U.S. adults (70%) say they favor the legislation. Only about three-in-ten (28%) oppose the bill, which provides economic aid to businesses, individuals and state and local governments.

While congressional votes on the legislation have been deeply divided along partisan lines, 41% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents support the measure. The bill draws overwhelming support from Democrats and Democratic leaners (94% favor).

In assessing the proposed spending in the aid package, 41% of Americans view it as about right, while another 25% say it spends too little; only a third of Americans say the legislation spends too much money. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to view the spending in the bill as excessive (61% of Republicans vs. 11% of Democrats).

The new national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted on the Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel March 1-7, 2021, among 12,055 adults, finds that a majority of the public (57%) says the Biden administration made a good faith effort working with Republican congressional leaders on the coronavirus aid package.

Three-quarters of women say they favor the aid package, while a smaller majority of men (66%) say the same.

While overwhelming majorities of Black (91%), Hispanic (80%) and Asian American adults (76%) say they favor the economic package, that compares with a smaller majority of White adults (63%).”

So, as we can see by these statistics, just about everyone, except members of the Republican Party and then just members who are in US Congress, support the checks. So, wouldn’t it be nearly political suicide for Republicans to oppose such a popular bill?

Aaron Blake has raised that question in the Washington Post:

“Republicans have seemingly found themselves on the very wrong side of some big legislative battles in recent years.

The tax cut package they pushed through in 2018, for instance, polled among the most unpopular bills passed — if not the most unpopular — in decades. Their 2017 effort to replace the Affordable Care Act was even more historically unpopular, with support falling as low as the teens in some polls (before Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona ended it with his thumbs-down).

And it would seem to be happening again, with Republican leaders pushing for their party to unite against President Biden’s hugely popular coronavirus stimulus bill. Some are characterizing this as a huge risk.

The reality is more complex.

Despite that, Republicans calculated that they could still oppose the package, by focusing on some of its more objectionable elements. And by the time 2010 rolled around, about 75 percent of Americans said half or more of the stimulus money had been wasted. In April of that year, 62 percent said the legislation had not created jobs, with just 51 percent of Democrats saying it had. And on Election Day, only about one-third of voters said the package actually helped, according to exit polls. Republicans won the House in a rout and gained six seats in the Senate, after running in many cases on their opposition to the bill.”

One big question that Blake ignores is why the Republicans must oppose this spending at all. If it is popular who are they tr byying to appease in opposing it? I have heard some conservatives say this bill is a disincentive for people to go back out and work. Seriously? This many people really DON’T want to go back to work. They just want free money? That doesn’t really make any sense.

Of course, they can oppose parts of this bill, including their stead fast opposition to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Let’s face it. This is not about actually loosing money. Big corporations won’t lose much money just by raising the minimum wage. That issue is more about keeping poor people in their place. People on the bottom have to be kept there. By allowing the minimum wage to go up, the working poor have a little more choice as to where they work. These issues have always been about keeping poor people poor and powerless.

And let’s be realistic. The Republican Party caters to the wealthy industrialists. What the industrialists want the Republicans want.

The amazing thing is how many working people support the Republican Party and their positions. It is something like watching slaves who vote for their slave owners. It is like Native American Indians voting for George Custer or Jews voting for Hitler.

It doesn’t make any sense. But it happens.

And it is hard to imagine anyone, of any political party, really wanting to let working people lose everything they have by denying them the stimulus checks. They may lose their homes, their cars, their lives. But supporting the industrialists is what being a Republican is all about. And let’s not let all the Democrats off the hook. Some of them are no different. Many Democrats are in the back pocket of certain corporations. Their opposition to Medicare for all is proof of that. They want to protect the insurance industry. Many Americans go without health care so that corporate leaders can profit off the sick and dying.

So, let’s enjoy the stimulus checks while we can get them. Congress is not always so generous, so let’s get the money while we can.