Thread by @TiffanyBond

Why I think income limits on any cash infusions to the economy are a bad idea, a thread.

It seems like those who are pro means test don't understand how insane submitting paperwork to the government is, the bureaucracy the government is, or the staffing that this requires.

I get that it seems wrong to give people who have money more money.

There are ways to tackle someone who didn't "deserve" stimulus on the backside with taxes, etc...for the folks who truly don't "deserve" it, many will donate, and this will be a negligible amount of $.

There also aren't all that many of those people.

I think many *drastically* overestimate the stability of our middle class, the degree to which it is leveraged, and how many people it really is.

A lot of our middle class has cash flow, but not long-term liquidity. I digress.

Let's talk about the bigger problems.

Immediately, going through everyone's taxes takes time that we won't have. They'll be able to draw a line and get a good chunk of those who are poor...but we are headed to an economic collapse.

What does that mean?

It means that those in the upper/middle class based on historic tax returns and current pay stubs may no longer be. A phenomenal amount of the US population is one month from insolvency.

So now we're using staff to spin their wheels and verify a whole bunch of irrelevant info.

So far, we've...

✔Slowed down checks
✔Drastically increased workload for employees we don't have, or have trained
✔Exposed many more people to #COVID19 in the process

Let's talk about paperwork that may be required.

Have you ever had to send paperwork to the government? It's fun.

You mail stuff in and then you wait.

And you wait.

And you call and wait on hold for over an hour.

And then you find out that some/all info isn't there. Repeat.

I lost health insurance for my family, and paid a penalty for losing health insurance, because I was repeatedly asked for something that did not exist for my business.

I submitted multiple versions of me trying to make this report for my business, all of which were rejected.

I was repeatedly scheduled for phone calls at times I could not make, and despite calling to leave messages telling them a time didn't work for me, I was defaulted and lost our health insurance.

I spent hours on the phone trying to handle it for nearly a year.

Are you a 1099? Provide forms from a business that doesn't have the staffing to respond to you and/or went out of business.

Taken to zero hours vs laid off? Prove it.

Are you sure future business is gone but can't prove a hypothetical? Bummer for you - no stimulus!

We are going to leave out a huge chunk of the population and over-complicate the stimulus, thus knee-capping its efficacy.

For a federal government that doesn't seem to ever flinch when corporations need you, don't turn your back on our people.

We are already going to have big, gaping holes for those who make too little to file taxes and/or are homeless, let's not make this more complex than we know we need.

Tl;dr: Don't hurt vulnerable people making them go to great lengths to prove they are vulnerable.