#DirectCashRelief

As the COVID-death toll surged past 100,000 this Memorial Day, Marianne Williamson recorded a new video in the home where's she's sheltering, a video based on the hashtag she's been promulgating for months. Just before recording, she told me that "Anyone with a heart can see that $2,000 a month direct cash relief is necessary in order for tens of millions of people to make it through this crisis. Instead, our government is actually cutting back on its commitments to help our citizens cope with a calamitous economic crisis. Neither history nor God will judge us well."

It's why it's so crucial to be electing leaders in every part of the country who are motivated by the legitimate interests of working families, not by the bought-and-paid for interests of corporate entities. That's our job in this-- picking the right leaders, not people like Trump, Mitch McConnell and Gregory Meeks. According to a Newsweek survey of politicians supporting regular payments during the pandemic, Bernie "was one of the earliest people to push for the recurring checks. In mid-March, the former Democratic presidential candidate tweeted that a one-time $1,200 check-- which was the only direct payment included in the historic $2 trillion CARES Act--wasn't enough. 'The Senate must provide a $2,000 per month emergency payment for every American until this crisis is over,' he tweeted at the time. Since then, Sanders teamed up with Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) to introduce legislation that would provide such monthly payments to every individual who earns less than $120,000 annually. The checks would arrive each month throughout the pandemic and in the three months after the crisis comes to an end. 'If we can bail out large corporations, we can make sure that everyone in this country has enough income to pay for the basic necessities of life,' Sanders said in a statement after the bill was introduced... In the House, Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) introduced legislation in April calling for $2,000 for every American over 16, for up to one year. The bill has 18 Democratic co-sponsors... Khanna argued that a 'one-time $1,200 check isn't going to cut it' and that 'Americans need sustained cash infusions for the duration of this crisis in order to come out on the other side alive, healthy and ready to get back to work.'" Others in the House pushing for this include AOC, Pramila Jayapal, and Rashida Tlaib. Polls have found that a majority of Americans support a monthly $2,000 UBI check to help weather the financial storm. 66% of respondents in one poll said they preferred recurring payments of $2,000 until a year after Trump declares an end to the federal state of emergency.

But congressional leaders aren't there. They seem to have other priorities-- Pelosi and Hoyer want to bail out lobbyists and McConnell wants to indemnify businesses that open too rapidly from any consequences-- like workers or customers dying.

Marianne introduced me to Kentucky progressive Mike Broihier, vying to take on the odious and villainous Mitch McConnell. Over the weekend, Mike told me that just last week he and his wife had finally "received our one-time stimulus check of $2,400, ten weeks into the acknowledgment of a full on pandemic. As farmers, just hitting the prime production days of our operation, we have cash flow. What our lives would be like if we were unemployed and uninsured facing the greatest health crisis in a century is hard for us to imagine. We have food, water, shelter but 40-million American households teeter on the brink. A one-time check is a joke for those in need. Opinions vary but predictions of a recession/depression lasting 18-months to five years are  common. Congress must fight their first instinct and habit of handing money to corporations and deliver it directly to the people who need it, who will spend it, and who deserve it as compensation for their corrupt and inept leadership in Washington."

There are no farmers in the southeast Queens district where Democratic Socialist Shaniyat Chowdhury is taking on corrupt New Dem Gregory Meeks. And there are almost no people feeling the financial squeeze of this pandemic. "I believe," he told me yesterday, "we should have UBI beyond the pandemic. During this time, billionaires have made $434 billion dollars according to a CNBC report. While we lost everything-- our homes, jobs, and loved ones. This is just morally wrong and we need to have a working class agenda that includes Medicare for All, Universal Paid Sick Leave, and guaranteeing everyone has an income to pay for the basic necessities. Not only will we be financially relived, but we live happier, longer, and be more productive."

What Shan and Mike have in common is that both are part of Marianne Williamson's organizing effort to elect more progressives to Congress. All of the candidates endorsed by Marianne would be co-sponsoring Ro Khanna's bill in the House or Bernie's in the Senate if they were in Congress now. If you're a regular DWT reader, you're already familiar with many of these candidates. Please hear them out on this crisis and consider contributing to their campaigns by clicking on the Marianne's Endorsed Candidates thermometer below.

Despite the corporate void of a candidate Chuck Schumer is pushing-- furiously-- in Georgia, former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson is the best candidate to take on David Perdue and flip his Senate seat. When I asked her about helping workers through the pandemic-- something Perdue adamantly opposes-- she said "we need to rethink what fiscal stimulus and unemployment insurance looks like. We must provide for liquidity in the market, which occurs most efficiently when cash money or credits are given to families at the lower end of the economic scale or to super small businesses. Universal base income is just a re-envisioning of Unemployment Insurance for a new day and a new economic moment. It means no more than a targeted stimulus to the economy and to civic stability by bridging the gap between the despair of high unemployment and the regeneration of our economic future." Smart, right? Another Georgia candidate-- this one running for a GOP-held House seat-- is Lisa Ring, who noted that "The only way we will make it through this crisis without permanent damage to our nation is together and with good governance. Half of all Americans were already living paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic. Now, with 38 million people filing unemployment claims and millions more who won’t have jobs to return to in the coming months, we must do everything we can to help all people survive and then get back on their feet. $2,000 per person per month is a start, healthcare for all is an important next step, and we can continue from there on a path toward progress and humanity."




Austin-based House candidate Julie Oliver took up that same theme. "Too many members of Congress," she told me, "don't know what it’s like to live paycheck-to-paycheck, let alone to be unemployed with bills piling up. In #TX25, our Congressman is a wealthy car dealer from Weatherford only interested in putting himself first. There is bipartisan support in Congress for Rep Pramila Jayapal’s bill-- it would cover workers’ salaries up to $90,000 for up to six months-- allowing businesses to rehire furloughed and laid-off employees. ⁦That’s the kind of solution this moment needs."

One state up is Oklahoma and there's a candidate, Tom Guild, there taking on a Blue Dog, Republican-lite incumbent, Kendra Horn. Guild: "We should invest $2,000 a month in each American during the current pandemic. Many still have not received their stimulus checks. In Oklahoma, tens of thousands have not received a penny in unemployment compensation, because of an incompetently administered system. The system’s top administrator just resigned and who knows how much longer Oklahomans and beleaguered Americans can pay their mounting bills and afford food and shelter. This is a unique challenge in the history of our country. We can do this if we pull together! As the Hollies sang so beautifully-- He’s Not Heavy. He’s My Brother!!

Lauren Ashcraft is a financial services expert running in New York's old Silk Stocking district-- that now includes swaths of working class Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods as well. The seat is occupied by a Wall Street-friendly Democrat, Carolyn Maloney, and Lauren is crystal clear about what a difference she would make in Congress. "It needs to be $2,000 per month for every person regardless of income, dependency status, etc. so far, many New Yorkers have been excluded from federal help at this time because our cost of living is so much higher than across the USA. The $2,000 per month will begin to make up for the fact that New Yorkers have not had their basic needs met, Medicaid benefits have come under attack in our state, and the majority of my district consists of renters who cannot pay their rent at this time."

Way up north in a very different part of New York-- Monroe County-- progressive Robin Wilt is seeking to replace another New Dem in Congress. She pointed out yesterday that "The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (a nonpartisan research and policy institute that pursues federal and state policies designed to both reduce poverty and inequality while restoring fiscal responsibility in equitable ways) has enumerated the criteria for effective economic response to the COVID-19 crisis based on the lessons we learned from our historical fiscal response to past economic crises (most recently the Great Recession of 2008). Its research demonstrates that fiscal stimulus is most effective if: 1) it is implemented as early as possible in a recession; 2) it is directed to individuals and entities who will quickly spend, not save or invest, any additional resources they receive; 3) it errs on the side of being larger than ultimately necessary rather than smaller; and 4) its size and duration respond to changing circumstances. Notably, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has been championing a fiscal stimulus package for the masses that adheres to these criteria and meets the scale of the crisis. We can learn from our past mistakes in crisis response during the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, and the Great Recession by leaving no one behind in our federal response and implementing the key elements currently lacking from our fiscal stimulus: namely, by increasing direct payments and aid to individuals and small businesses, expanding our unemployment insurance, increasing nutritional aid benefits, and providing health care coverage, and housing security to those who need it most. That is the stimulus the American people need and deserve. We need more representatives who are willing to unabashedly champion those priorities."

Another candidate who I didn't know-- and who practically lives in my neighborhood-- who Marianne introduced me to is David Kim, a young progressive taking on Jimmy Gomez in the heart of Los Angeles. "Pre-COVID19," Kim told me, "masses of our people were working 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet. Now they have no jobs to make ends meet. Yet, instead of providing the people recurring monthly cash payments to survive these times, our elected officials chose to give the people a one-time means-tested $1200 check while bailing out corporations and their corporate donors in billions. This clearly shows that our elected officials pledge their allegiance to corporations and not the people, and that they can't get a pulse of the human suffering in our communities. What's the point of opening everything back up, when the people have no money? When the people have no money, there's no economy. Giving recurring cash payments of $2K/month is long overdue and Congress must act now, or risk being voted out this November."

Voting out "ex"-Republican Blue Dog Tom O'Halleran would be good for everyone-- except his corporate donors-- and Eva Putzova wouldn't wait to make up for lost time. "I support the Sanders-Harris-Markey legislation calling for a $2,000 per month check for every American earning under $120,000 per year," she stated flatly. "Thirty-million people are out of work and can't pay their bills and now have no health insurance. Meanwhile, America's billionaires saw their combined wealth soar by $434 billion between March 18 and May 19. There is no reason why we can't guarantee every needy American worker livable income, healthcare, and housing during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. In fact, I believe all Americans should be guaranteed these things as a human right. Cost certainly is not the issue. We have plenty of wealth in the U.S.  It is just unfairly distributed to those who are already wealthy. It is time for some modest redistribution to those in need."

Liam O'Mara is running for a seat in Riverside County, CA, held by a Republican, Ken Calvert, that even Fox News says is too corrupt for public office. O'Mara, a progressive and a history professor, won his primary in a landslide and is running on a UBI. "Supporting the House and Senate proposals for a 2,000 per month stimulus has to be one of the easiest political decisions I've made since entering this race," he told me. "I am, after all, one of just a handful of post-primary Democratic candidates running on a universal basic income. Too many in Washington have forgotten one of the fundamental lessons of the Great Depression-- that cash in the hands of the workers is what drives the economy, not Wall Street. Back when they did understand it, in the immediate postwar decades, wage growth matched productivity gains and we created a middle class lifestyle for most Americans. The 1940s, '50s, and '60s saw the longest sustained boom in the real economy in our country's history, and we made the American Dream real for countless millions. But since the 1970s, the Fordist principle-- that money in the hands of the workers lets them buy your stuff-- has been under assault. The new oligarchs do not care about the economy as a whole, only their own profits, and they have guided into place policies which have undermined the middle class. Pay has stagnated for forty years and benefits are shrinking; the cost of housing, health care, and education have skyrocketed; and the tax burden has been shifted onto our shoulders so the rich can siphon ever more out of the real economy. This pandemic is only laying bare how precarious the situation is for countless American families. Many of us lack savings and have no way to weather a quick fall in income. And the sharp decrease in our weekly spending has been crushing small businesses across the country. It is a perfect time to remind Americans that it is their spending which keeps the whole engine running, not the so-called 'job creators' in the 1%. And the best way to restart the economy and get us back on track is to put cash directly into the hands of the people who will spend it."