By Guy Page

Senator and possible Labor Secretary Bernie Sanders has upped the ante on proposed stimulus payments for all Americans: he now wants the government to pay $2000 every month for every ‘working class’ American.

Sanders tweeted the comments last night: “The pandemic is surging, and tens of millions of Americans are facing economic devastation. The Senate needs to pass a real stimulus package NOW that provides $2,000 a month to the working class, $600 a week to the unemployed and expands Medicare to all.”

When Congress returns to work next week, it will attempt to resolve differences between Senate Pres. Mitch McConnell’s $500 billion stimulus package and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s $2.2 trillion plan. McConnell’s plan has no one-time stimulus funding, while Pelosi’s would deliver another $1,200 to every American. Sanders’ plan would far outstrip even Pelosi’s. His tweet does not specify how the monthly $2000 benefit would be funded. 

Some of Sanders’ Twitter followers pushed back. 

• “Plenty of nations are still afloat despite the pandemic “surging” and without adopting communist redistribution policies, causing goods prices to skyrocket, as you are suggesting. In some nations this surge is leveling off anyways.”

• “Last time we gave $600 a week on top of the standard unemployment rate, most out of work folks I know ended up making MORE than they were while working. Meanwhile the rest of us working shlubs were left out to dry. How does that make sense?”

Sanders yesterday also took a twittershot at the Trump administration: “Instead of fighting to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed over 242,000 Americans, the Trump administration is spending its final days in office fighting a bogus voter “fraud” problem that does not exist. Pathetic. The Biden-Harris Administration cannot come soon enough.”