Does the coronavirus merit investment, or personal, concern or consideration?

Is it only wealthy people running the government? See a problem. Throw money at it.

Rich guys and scientists putting together an expedited plan to deal with the virus.

Their report

History of pandemics

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NBA teams are small businesses. I mean theres only like 15 guys on the roster…

I just don’t understand what is so appealing with negative payroll tax. Sure it helps people employed but if you’re employed, you’re probably less worse off than those still without a job.

Thinking about re-opening requirements in my state, capacity control will likely reduce the amount of rehiring done by many businesses. Great for those employed but they won’t need the extra money that badly considering they got the stimulus check and greatly increased unemployment benefits before.

On the other hand, those near the end of their 10 weeks of extra $600/wk unemployment benefits will see their income drop off a cliff. So why not extend unemployment benefits (with a damn cap based on previous income, say 80%) instead. And no BS about not having time to implement the proper system this time.

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Employers can bulk file claims. But the individuals still need to certify weekly, regarding if they performed any work or received any job offers.

The only “stunt” is shaming select companies for taking money they were in fact eligible to receive.

Either this program really is intended for businesses with less than 500 employees (and not just “small business”), or Congress really screwed up the parameters of the program/law.

Attacking the companies directly is merely deflecting the blame from those responsible. It’s pretty disingenuous to say “I know the rules we came up with say you are eligible, but you should’ve just known we really didnt mean to give you any of the money.”

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$5M is like a nickel to a billion dollar corporation. But if they get the money and manage to fly under the radar, then from a greedy business standpoint that’s a win. Or if they get exposed, then they just return the money and pat themselves on the back. The Lakers are probably telling themselves that they just gave $5M to local small businesses. Either way it’s a win for them. Of course, the blame falls squarely on Congress and surprise, they’re a bunch of rich people too. Nothing gets funded in this country unless the rich can get their cut.

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I think you’re both right.

We shouldn’t blame businesses from taking free money they can legally get.

The optics are horrible and we should blame businesses not realizing how bad it would look for taking free money they shouldn’t get.

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Its intended for businesses with 500 employees which is one of the standard definitions of “small” business. (at least for manufacturing)

Congress seems to have just picked a “one size fits all” definition for small business here. SBA has varying definitions of “small” based on industry.

In regards to the payment for 2018 filers who didn’t file 2019 yet – They have updated the website info saying you’re not able to update payment info except by filing 2019 taxes.

From Economic Impact Payments | Internal Revenue Service
" 2018 Filers: If you need to change your account information or mailing address, file your 2019 taxes electronically as soon as possible. That is the only way to let us know your new information."

However, it seems to let me input direct deposit information anyways now, I don’t get the “not available” message. I need to go dig up my 2018 files (digital) to get the AGI/info.

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It’s slightly OT, but I’ve been trying to see if IRS processed my 2019 return using the View Your Tax Aaccount feature. It worked fine a few weeks ago, but now I keep getting an “Access Denied. You don’t have permission to access ‘http://sa.www4.irs.gov/eauth/DasFcc/das.fcc’ on this server.” error after entering my username (the next page is supposed to ask for password). Is anyone else able to log in?

Slightly OT? This thread is in “Off Topic” so you’re fine.

It’s off topic of this off topic thread :slight_smile:

Was it this? https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/28/irs-stimulus-payment-recipients-lash-out-against-trumps-vanity-letter/

yes that was it

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I feel California is teasing it’s residents about easing the stay-at-home restrictions. The Governor has been releasing details of their reopening strategy but there were 1,300 new cases yesterday and 1,567 new cases today. There’s no way restrictions can be eased with the number of new cases climbing. People can protest the restrictions all they want but it won’t change those numbers.

Ya, I’m a bit annoyed by this letter too. Trump doing Trump and taking credit to further his political campaign on the taxpayer dollar when Congress did the work and he just signed the bill. I received my payment via direct deposit but found this letter in the mail to follow. Sounds like the checks that were mailed also had his signature. I wonder how many people that don’t follow politics, have access to news or uneducated actually are persuaded to think this was really from him and not from taxpayer money.

I’m also wondering honestly if anyone else in power to allow this to pass through also thought this was an abuse of power but didn’t have the guts to stand up to it for fear of being fired, which is Trump’s typical way of instilling fear and obedience.

The overall trendline is down in CA. Yes one day it spiked a little but its been trending down for all of April.

That +1567 cases was only 3.6% increase vs daily 10% increases at the start of the month and 20% increases /day in late March

I’m not very annoyed

Bush Jr did the same thing 20 years ago :

Its well within the Presidents power to sign a letter from the Treasury. Theres legit reason to send such a letter so we have actual record of our stimulus amount. Slapping his name on it and taking credit is just smart politics on his part