The coronavirus bill is going through a round of amendments in the Senate, and one of the changes is weirdly complex enough that I didn't understand it at first. Luckily David Dayen does:
According to a Democratic aide, the amendment would roll back the federal boost from $400/month to $300/month. It would also extend benefits through September, adding back that month that the House chopped off. And it would make the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits exempt from taxes in the 2020 tax year. If you got the $600 federal boost for the maximum period allowable in 2020, it would add up to $10,200, so that’s where they got that number. All of the federal boost would be tax-free, then.
So, um, sure, I guess. As David says, this jiggery pokery is because the Democratic budget resolution sets the maximum price tag for this bill at $1.9 trillion, so if you add something in one place you have to reduce it in another. I suppose we can expect more of this stuff as the day wears on.
It’s too bad they couldn’t have set the ceiling at “a bajillion dollars” or even just “20 trillion dollars” and then announced (pleasantly surprised!) that the final bill had come in at “only” whatever it ends up coming in at when all the truly necessary spending measures are put into it, regardless of cost. Not sure why Dems always set spending limits before deciding what needs spending, cause that never seems to work well. (Reminiscent of when they were passing the ACA and they had to cram it into an arbitrarily determined total cost, even if that meant jettisoning useful portions of it like “adequate subsidies for everyone” along the way.)
Because the President asked for 1.9 trillion as a ceiling.
And it would make the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits exempt from taxes in the 2020 tax year....
What about people who've already filed?
Seems to be a misquote here. It is $300/WEEK not a month.