Second stimulus check: $40,000 could be new income limit

On Monday, Mitch McConnell conceded that a second stimulus check would likely be sent out to low income families in the United States. The coronavirus pandemic has affected the health of millions of Americans but it has affected the economy too in a manner not seen since the Great Depressions.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and while Republicans and Democrats fought over what a second stimulus package would entail, there was always an underlying assumption that some help would eventually arrive.

It seems both Republicans and Democrats have agreed that the most vulnerable people in the country should be helped and they have decided that people who earn less than $40,000 need help the most. Mitch McConnell, who once said the Democrats' HEROES Act would be DOA once it got to the Senate floor said “I think the people who have been hit the hardest are people who make about $40,000 a year or less" when asked about a potential second check and he said it was likely that a deal would be agreed for further economic help for the most vulnerable in society.

The news, in one way, is good for Americans but as Jeff Stein of The Washington Post said, the $40,000 cut-off point would "sharply limit eligibility.” During the first round of stimulus checks, anyone who made under $75,000 was eligible and even those who didn't file taxes. The cut-off mentioned by McConnell would eliminate millions of Americans from eligibility.

The Republicans have caved to the demands of the Democrats and the toll the pandemic has taken but it seems they want to curtail excessive spending. “I think the next round we’ve got to be more targeted to those who are really in need. So I hope we can target this a little bit better to those who have been hit hard because of COVID-19,” Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) said of a second stimulus payment.