President Trump signed the $ 900 billion Covid-19 aid package on Sunday after initially calling the bill into question by asking Congress to change it before the Christmas holiday.
The legislation, which was negotiated on a bipartisan basis, provides for $ 600 in direct payments. After the deal was approved in Congress, Trump asked for checks for $ 2,000.
CNN asked you, our viewers and readers, after Congress passed the bill, your views on the latest aid package. Many expressed frustration at the $ 600 direct payment and said the account does not provide sufficient assistance.
Briana, from Concord, North Carolina, lost her job as a business development coordinator for a massage franchise due to the pandemic in March and has not received unemployment insurance since October. She and her husband now depend on the uncertain income they earn from a small flooring company they own, where the husband also works.
She told CNN that while the $ 600 stimulus check is beneficial, it is not enough for her family to survive in the coming months, especially since she is concerned with making the mortgage payment on time.
“$ 600 per adult plus $ 500 per child is not enough to survive, say four months,” she said.
“So we have been very, very frugal with our money,” explained Briana.
She said the first stimulus package earlier this year was much more useful.
Briana also noted that her situation is especially difficult because she decided to teach her 7-year-old daughter home lessons, due to uncertainty about personal and virtual learning.
She told CNN that studying at home takes six to seven hours of her day, and she also spends time helping her daughter with schoolwork. While Briana was looking for work, it was difficult to find a job that matched her current schedule.
“People like me and my family are among the cracks,” she said. “We need help.”
Nicole, a self-employed hairdresser in Los Angeles, California, who is unemployed most of the year, called the $ 600 payment an “insult”. It depends on her husband’s income and unemployment insurance.
“We are two families with an income and we need two to make this work,” Nicole told CNN. Being unable to work was a “huge success,” she said.
She told CNN that the current package is not enough and, like Briana, she said the first stimulus package was more useful.
“We have been sitting here waiting and praying for six or seven months since the end of July, when the first … unemployment, pandemic support is over and since this is over, something is better than nothing, yes, but what should we do com where should it go? When there are so many places to go, “said Nicole.
She also expressed frustration with the time it took for the current package to be approved, calling it “unacceptable”.
The US House of Representatives could approve a clause on Monday night to increase the amount of money individuals and families receive on stimulus checks to $ 2,000.