White House Wants To Cancel Stimulus | My Response

What's up, you guys? It's Graham here.

So, I have an extra bonus video for you today because I was browsing the internet this morning—like I do pretty much every morning—and I came across something rather unexpected. Even more unexpected than unemployment reaching 30 million people. Well, at the exact same time, the stock market rallies 2%, and that says a lot. No seriously, I just came across this article not even like an hour ago, and here's what the headline says: "Fourth stimulus bill may not be needed," it states, "Bounce back, White House."

So here's the thing. Over the last few weeks, it seemed almost inevitable that there was going to be another round of stimulus checks. There have been proposals of sending every eligible American $2,000 a month who earned under $130,000 annually. There have been other proposals of minting two trillion dollar coins and then giving everyone $2,000 up front and then $1,000 per month for a year. There have been discussions about canceling rent and mortgages.

There have also been rumors about smashing the like button for the YouTube algorithm. If you've not done that already, because it greatly helps up my channel, thank you so much! Anyway, the general consensus among all of us, including myself, is that we're unlikely to see something as ambitious as some of the proposals we've been reading about. But we'll probably see something similar to this, albeit maybe a watered-down version in the next month or so.

This could be in the form of another $1,200 all our trek reissued. It might be more pay to frontline workers. It might be in the form of a payroll tax cut. Maybe it might be a monthly recurring deposit. Who knows what's gonna happen? But the comments made from a White House diccon amidst this morning paints a much different picture than what we were expecting.

He said, as of this morning—and I'm gonna be quoting The New York Times here—"If they really do sort of get back to normal relatively quickly, then there might not necessarily be much need for another bill." He said, "Saying the course of the economy will depend heavily on how effectively the nation halts the spread of the illness."

Then when asked if Americans should be receiving more aid given skyrocketing unemployment, it was suggested that it might not be needed and that the president would likely make a decision next week on whether he thinks the economy needs a further near-term lift.

Now, this is the first time we've heard anything like this coming from the White House directly. Why? Did the information we've been hearing about has been coming from stimulus proposals which demand that money be reduced back into our economy as soon as possible? This is the type of news people really love to hear and learn about because it gives a lot to potentially look forward to. However, a lot of the proposals that we've been hearing about in their infancy, and the chances of them actually passing as written, is going to be very slim without a lot of scrutiny.

In this video, I'll do my best to explain exactly what's going on and do my best to clear up any misinterpretations or confusion about what's being said and done today. See, when it comes to stimulus proposals, typically they're gonna be just that—proposals.

And I think it's really important that we address that distinction really early on because what usually happens is that we could come up with whatever plan we want to. Like, let's say giving every eligible American $1,500 a month over the age of 16 years old, regardless of income, and we could give an additional $200 a week to any American working more than 20 hours a week. And then from there, we could gather support around our plan.

Well, the thing is, on its own, that plan doesn't really do much. It's an idea. And as any entrepreneur knows, ideas are a dime a dozen. Anyone can come up with an idea, explain how it's gonna help millions of people, and then explain why it should be picked by one of the Sharks on Shark Tank. But without the go-ahead and funding to execute that plan, it ends there. That could be the reality of many of the proposals that are being discussed here on YouTube.

Because the reality is that until it's passed by the Senate and then signed by the president, those proposals are just that—ideas and concepts. That's the difficulty with discussing concepts like this because so much is rapidly changing, so much is up in the air, and there's no real official guidance out there about what's happening day-to-day. That we end up getting our most useful information from YouTubers who are covering the topics than we do from actual news outlets.

But because of that ambiguity, there's just a lot of information floating around out there with no real guidance of what's actually happening. And that brings us to today. Here's the thing: until the next round of stimulus comes through, or at least until it's heavily debated within the Senate, it's unclear what's actually going to happen.

As excited as we can get about proposals, it's way too premature to see what happens with them or if they'll ever become a reality. Not to mention, there's so much information out there, there's so much conflicting information. Everyone has their own argument, and we have no idea what's going to happen.

Stimulus proposals are still being submitted, and on April 27th, Congress and the White House were reviewing a phase four stimulus plan which would provide a payroll tax cut and even a subsidy to its workers. And that just means you'd get more money added onto your paycheck in the form of lower taxes.

On that very same day, the House said that they plan to meet this upcoming Monday—May the 4th be with you—see what I did there? To discuss the next stimulus plan. Then right after that, on April 28th, the president was asked about the possibility of another stimulus check being issued and his response was, "You would love to see payroll tax cuts versus a big distribution," referring to the massive stimulus checks that have been doled out to citizens the last couple of weeks.

Then today, April 30th, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that states and cities seek $1 trillion in the next stimulus. And now, when asked at a White House event whether or not Americans should be given more aid given skyrocketing unemployment, the president suggested that it may not be needed.

"It would really be incentive for people to come back to work and for employers to hire if that's what," he said. Something like that could happen.

With that, a White House adviser told the media that the administration is determining whether to provide those who qualify another round of stimulus checks. The additional financial support could be included in a phase four deal. And also another word that the administration would be ready with policies to propose if the economy needed more stimulus. If the illness continues to be a problem throughout the summer, then it's going to be a very, very heavy lift to keep the economy going at the rate we're used to.

We don't know that best-case is what's going to happen. Or in other words, I interpret this as him saying, "We're gonna wait a little bit longer and then see what happens, and then if we absolutely need to, then at that point, we'll talk about it." But as of right now, it might be a little bit too early.

Now, keep in mind and remember that the White House is not the one who decides what happens. It all starts with making a proposal that we're all reading about, and then it goes to the House to be debated and scrutinized. And then if it passes the House, it goes to the Senate. Then again, be debated and scrutinized.

And then if the Senate passes it, it goes to the president to decide whether or not he's gonna sign it or not. The president then has the right to say, "No, I'm not approving this. I'm not gonna sign it." And if that happens, it goes back to the Senate. And if two-thirds of the Senate agree that that bill should be passed, then at that point, they can override the president's decision with a two-thirds vote.

But ultimately, there's a very heavy chain of command throughout all of this. And even though the White House can come out and say, "We don't think we're gonna need another round of stimulus," they're not the ones in charge of saying whether or not they can do that. So a lot is yet to be seen, and until something is actually passed, the reality is that no one really knows what's going to happen.

Like, we could all speculate that they're dragging things out potentially long enough to begin reopening the economy. And that way they could reassess the situation later before having to issue another stimulus. Or maybe they use this as leverage to negotiate other aspects of the stimulus plan, like payroll tax cuts. We have no idea.

But at its core—and I'm just gonna sum things up very loosely here, so just bear with me—we really have two groups of people that need to find some sort of middle ground soon, otherwise nothing gets accomplished. One side wants to make sure enough money goes back to the people as they need, and the other side wants to begin reopening the economy by giving incentives for people to begin working again.

At this time, it still seems like a strong likelihood of something passing. But given the comments by the White House today, we have no idea what's gonna be done or if people are gonna be receiving another round of stimulus checks.

Look, I wouldn't be surprised if another $1,200 check was reissued along with some state and local government funding. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they took a wait-and-see approach just to see what happens over the next month or so and then reevaluate from there what should be done.

Either way, it all leaves us somewhat in the dark without any real guidance of what to expect or what's gonna be happening, other than just to read more updates about what's going on that usually just end up leading to more confusion.

Ideally, I think it's clear that another round of stimulus checks is really wanted, but when it's safe to do so, it might be a good idea to incentivize people to get back to a normal working routine and to incentivize businesses to go and rehire. Because at the end of it, the situation is really complicated, and there's not one solution that'll leave everyone happy.

Like, for businesses to stay open, they need people spending money. So it doesn't make sense rehiring people if they have no customers. But in order for there to be customers, people need money.

It's kind of like the chicken and the egg conundrum. If we get people money, it needs to be an amount that helps make sure their needs get met. And if we get businesses money, it needs to be enough to keep them afloat or an amount that they can realistically repay.

Although eventually, we have to try to transition back into some level of normalcy. And at that time, we need to make sure people feel confident enough in their income to begin spending. Otherwise, businesses will fail, unemployment will rise again, and then we'll have to reevaluate what to do.

The real concern here is that people become so financially damaged that they stop spending money. Businesses stop hiring because they don't have that income coming in. Some businesses end up going under completely, and then we're going to be left with even worse unemployment that we have to do something about.

Sure, we could always take on more debt and print more money, but at a certain point, that begins eroding the value of our dollar. So we are paying for it in a way at some point in the future. It's like putting your spending on a zero percent interest credit card for 18 months. Using that free money as a lifeline could be extremely valuable.

But if that's not addressed ahead of time and paid off before it's due, it could be a very disastrous situation that could be a lot worse than borrowing the money for free upfront. Everything we do will end up having a consequence later on down the line, and I think at this point it's all about picking the option that will do the least amount of damage and the most amount of good long-term.

Even though that's up to the House, Senate, and White House to debate, it is apparent that most likely something will have to happen. And we'll just have to wait and see. But again, from everything that I've been reading and seeing, I have a feeling there's gonna be something that happens over the next month or two.

Although I have a feeling it might not be as good as getting $2,000 a month for an entire year tax-free. So there you go, I hope this provides more clarity about the situation.

And don't worry, I'm not gonna be making too many stimulus update videos. I'm gonna be still keeping up with my normal content, but at the same time, I could try to push out an extra video a week, and this just happens to be that video.

I think they're really important topics to cover, and it also overlaps with business and investing advice. So, you know, I find them interesting. I'm gonna continue making the videos every now and then, but don't worry, I'm still do my normal content as usual as well.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. As always, if you have not already, destroyed and J-pounded that like button. Make sure to J-pallet until it turns blue.

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