Stimulus

When the government came to a halt in April of 2020 the economy went into a recession but the government sent out stimulus checks and the recession was the shortest on record lasting only two months. The Trump administration sent $1.8 trillion to families in the form of $817 billion in stimulus checks, $678 billion in unemployment and $93 billion in child tax credit. If things had stopped there it might not have triggered inflation. The $600 per week of federal unemployment allowed people to earn more by not working and discouraged people from returning to work. Example. A person earning $1000 per week received $500 per week from the state and an additional $600 per week from the Feds. $1.7 trillion to business including $835 billion paycheck protection so business could keep paying employees, $349 billion for economic injury protection and $193 billion to cover business loss. $745 billion in state and local aid including $244 billion in the American Rescue Plan which covered all sorts of family expenses, $149 billion in the Cares Act which among other things helped retirement plans, $190 billion for schools, $72 billion to shore up Medicaid and $69 billion for transportation. $482 billion in health care cost mostly for vaccines and testing. $288 billion in other things like disaster spending and housing. Some in the Biden administration want the Build Back Better plan because it will put money in the hands of consumers who could then use that to offset higher prices. The down side is that it would add to the inflation problem but it could provide some relief before the elections.