Currently, the Democratic Party controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Currently. The question is, did President Joe Biden just cost the party the mid-terms?
Kat, Wally, Ava and C.I. are hearing complaints in Zoom chats. We're also getting them in e-mails.
People are getting letters about these checks, letters from the IRS, telling them how much they're getting, for example, $600. Six hundred? Not $1400?
Note that this is the check that Joe Biden promised in January of this year would be a $2,000 check. He made that promise ahead of the run-off elections in Georgia. Then the Democrats won both seats and Joe scaled it back.
That $2,000 I promised you, he explained, was actually just $1,400. See, Donald Trump gave you $600 at the end of his presidency and I'm just Donald Trump extended, didn't you know?
No, that's not what he promised. He's a liar.
And he's a liar whose checks are pissing off a lot of people.
Grad students on Zoom chats with Kat, Wally, Ava and C.I. are upset because they are getting letters informing them that they're not getting $1400. Why? The letter doesn't say. Just gives them a much smaller amount. The group has asked questions of the students and many have student loans and their deferral paperwork was supposed to have been processed -- deferred because they are still in school. But student loans are being garnished for them -- and we're sure for others.
People are pissed. The ones e-mailing are pissed.
"Why should I vote for the Democrats in November of 2022?" asked Joe W. "Under Donald Trump, I got $1800 with one check being for $1200 and the second being for $600. That was $1800 in 2020. In 2021, Joe Biden's giving me $600. And I voted for him because he was supposed to be better. I'm not voting in the mid-terms. Joe and the Democratic Party didn't take care of me and they're on their own."
Megan Bliss echoes that in an e-mail, writing, "I can't believe that Donald Trump prevented creditors from grabbing these relief checks and Joe Biden can't. This is outrageous. Biden spent his life taking care of his crooked son Hunter but he won't take care of American families. I'm voting Green in the mid-terms. I will not vote for a single Democrat and if I don't see improvement, I'll be voting Green in 2024. That's right, me, a lifelong Democrat who has held her nose in one election after another is done with being screwed over. We need a UBI and we can't get it. We get these paltry $1400 checks and then he's pulling out $500 for my student loan? Not voting Democratic in the mid-terms. Green all the way in 2022 and, if they can get their act together by 2024, I will be voting Green again."
Alison DeNisco Rayome and Clifford Colby (CNET) report:
Under the bill governing the second stimulus check, your funds could not be garnished to pay debts like child support, banks or private creditors. However, part of this rule changed with the third check.
The bill authorizing the third payout was pushed through using a process called budget reconciliation. Congressional Democrats used this legislative tool to more quickly pass the new COVID-19 relief bill and the third stimulus check that comes with it, since it allowed them to pass it with fewer votes. But because this process was used, the third checks aren't protected from all garnishment, although lawmakers are moving to fix this now.
There are three types of unpaid debt that could be paid through garnishment: unpaid IRS tax debt, other government debt like child support payments or private debt, according to Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. Your third stimulus payment will be protected from outstanding tax debt and child support, but not from private debts, such as debt accrued due to a civil judgment, ranging from civil damages to consumer debt in default, Watson said.
Several banking groups sent a letter to Congress on March 9 asking lawmakers to pass stand-alone legislation to prevent the third check from being garnished for private debts.
The Democratically controlled federal government refused to protect Americans. The check was given -- a tiny sum -- because Democrats insisted the American people -- at least some of them -- deserved a check, needed one. But they apparently didn't need it as much as the financial industry did and, as we all know, Congressional whores fill the government, not Congressional heroes.