President Trump signed the $ 900 billion Covid-19 relief package on Sunday after he initially launched the questionable bill by asking Congress to amend it just before the Christmas break.
The legislation, which was negotiated on a bipartisan basis, provides for $ 600 in direct payments. After the deal passed in Congress, Trump asked for $ 2,000 in checks.
CNN asked you, our viewers and readers, after Congress passed the bill on your thoughts on the latest relief package. Many expressed frustration with the direct payment of $ 600 and said the bill does not provide enough help.
Briana, of Concord, North Carolina, lost her job as business development coordinator for a pandemic massage franchise in March and has not received unemployment payments since October. Now she and her husband rely on the unstable income they get from a small land company they own, where her husband also works.
She told CNN that while the $ 600 stimulus check is beneficial, it’s not enough for her family to spend the next few months, mostly because she’s worried about making her mortgage payments on time.
“$ 600 per adult plus $ 500 per child is not enough to get it, let’s say four months,” he said.
“So we’ve been very, very frugal with our money,” Briana explained.
He said the first stimulus package earlier this year was much more useful.
Briana also noted that her situation is especially difficult as she made the decision to send her 7-year-old daughter to school due to uncertainty about face-to-face and virtual learning.
He told CNN that home schooling takes six to seven hours a day and he also spends time helping his daughter with homework. While Briana has been looking for work, it has been difficult to find a job that fits her current schedule.
“People like me and my family fall into the cracks,” he said. “We need help.”
Nicole, a self-employed hairdresser in Los Angeles, California, who has been out of work most of the year, called the $ 600 payment an “insult.” She has been relying on her husband’s income and unemployment contributions.
“We’re a two-income household and we need two incomes to make it work,” Nicole told CNN. Not being able to work has been a “big hit,” he said.
He told CNN that the current package is not enough and, like Briana, said the first stimulus package was more useful.
“We’ve been here sitting for six or seven months waiting and praying since the end of July, when the first … unemployment, pandemic support and, since it ended, something better than nothing, yes, but with what do we want to do that? Where are we supposed to go? When there are so many places to go, “Nicole said.
He also expressed frustration with the time it took to pass the current package, and considered it “unacceptable”.
The U.S. House of Representatives could approve a provision Monday night aimed at raising the amount of money individuals and families receive in stimulus checks to $ 2,000.