OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR WARNER & SENATOR KAINE:

The best way to replace lost income is by replacing their income (and ask for Amazon to pay for it)

There is a debate raging in Washington about what the next stimulus should look like and how it can directly help Americans more than the previous legislation did that is 4 months late and a trillion dollars short. Especially because a very simple and popular solution has been right under our noses since the beginning.

Although one more stimulus check is a help, we face a protracted economic downturn so cash payments are a critical tool to keeping America afloat while we try to figure out how to bend the curve so we can end the COVD-inspired economic crisis.

A recent poll showed 75% Americans “really need” another stimulus check and 42% won’t be able to pay their bills without it.

Have we forgotten that the most popular government program is one that gives seniors a check every month? It is a tangible and simple solution to lifting people out of poverty that we can all count on and benefit from.

Almost every American has been financially affected in the past 4 months but politicians have been trying to legislate our way into putting out the fire while the house burns into ashes.

Andrew Yang recently made the point that when your house is on fire you don’t stand around worrying about how much water you’re wasting to put it out. Doing too much isn’t the problem.

But even though GDP reportedly dropped 33% in the Second Quarter we’re spending our time debating bills that will ask millions of Americans to fill out paperwork that goes through the charade of asking them why they can’t find a job or pay their rent.

There should be bi-partisan appeal to give universal cash payments to every American right now. That is why Kamala Harris proposed a bill in support of it. Marco Rubio has also shown interest in a solution that helps people but doesn’t involve strings attached that would discourage part-time work if you can get it.

With less bureaucracy we can let Americans decide which bills they need to pay instead of spending so much time figuring it out for them. And not live in fear of making a few extra bucks that might disqualify them.

And Yang’s warnings about automation killing jobs are coming alive right now — not in 10 years as he expected — as estimates have shown 40% of the jobs lost might not come back.

As a result, his warnings about examples of higher social ills such as crime, anxiety and civic unrest are also seen to be rising as well. Consider the dilemma of a quarintined stay-at-home mother in an abusive relationship who has no income to use to move out and fewer safe opportunities to find income and pay for daycare even if she tried.

Especially in this new world we live in, almost every American can find themselves suddenly in a situation where they could use the piece of mind of monthly “seed funding’ to help them stay on their feet.

And if former “startups” like Amazon can get that kind of support and become Trillion Dollar Behemoths during this crisis while Americans suffer then maybe they can chip in their fair share to help us cope with an economy where work and income are not currently able to coexist.

Please take the right action and fight for monthly stimulus checks in the next stimulus bill.

• Jim McBride (Centreville, VA)