Although not currently included, lawmakers and lobbyists in Washington hope that the $3.5 trillion budget plan that passed the House of Representatives will also include two rounds of stimulus checks.
Passing the budget leaves the Democratic Party, which controls both houses of Congress, in a better position to create a tax-funded social spending package that can feature two rounds of direct payments of an additional $ 1,400 to taxpayers.
The key way to finance this new spending package would be the imposition of new taxes on the wealthiest. President Joe Biden supports a 28% corporate tax rate increase.
American Enterprise Institute tax expert Kyle Pomerleau told NBC News that the party is considering a plan that could raise $ 800 billion in taxes, which would be roughly enough to pay off two new $ 1,400 stimulus checks.
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the more than 171 million stimulus checks that were issued this spring totaled more than $ 400 billion.
However, Democrats would need at least 10 Republican votes to go ahead with the plan, and already about 50 Republican lawmakers have said they would not support additional stimulus checks.
Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020, three rounds of stimulus checks have been issued. The latest was this year when the IRS sent payments of $ 1,400, after two previous rounds of payments last year, in March and December 2020.
So far, the IRS has issued more than 169 million payments in the third round of direct stimulus assistance, and last month another 2.3 million people received the checks for $ 1,400.
According to the Tax Foundation, the first round of stimulus checks was the most effective in stimulating economic activity, as 75% of that money was spent quickly.
American consumers used more than 70% of the money received during the second and third stimulus rounds to pay off debt or add to their savings accounts.
