NO, THERE ARE NO $10,000 STIMULUS CHECKS

NO, THERE ARE NO $10,000 STIMULUS CHECKS

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So I’m seeing a lot of comments saying that folks got their stimulus payment, so that’s awesome.

In terms of the Get My Payment Tool, it looks like it’s working a lot better for many people, some are still having issues with it, so it’s obviously still not perfect, Rox and Roxanne saying that they got their stimulus last night but the Get My Payment tool told them they weren’t getting it until the 29th, Nascar 38 Lady said she got her stimulus on her Rush Card on April 27 but the portal said it was supposed to be April 30.

I’m glad you all got it early, but of course this goes to show that while the Get My Payment tool is improved, it’s still not perfect.

Alright so in terms of updates, let’s start with IRS, so thousands of IRS employees, I’ve seen the number 10,000 floating around, have apparently volunteered to go back to work.

Reportedly they’re getting a 10% pay raise with those in more riskier jobs, like the mailroom, would receive up to 25% pay raises.

Now, what does this mean for you,  I haven’t seen this, but hopefully as more IRS employees go back to work, this will mean that paper starts getting processed again.

IRS has not been processing paper, paper tax returns, etc. for at least a couple weeks now, and some of you have asked questions that I answered here in the channel, asking, for example, hey, I did not have to file in 2018, I had a filing requirement in 2019, but I paper filed it, what can I do, should I use the non-filers portal?

And I told you no, you can’t use the non-filers portal if you having a 2019 filing requirement, you basically have to wait for the IRS to process your paper tax return.

Look, these IRS employees going back to work is a sign that things might pick up sooner rather than later, IRS has not announced anything about processing paper returns again any time soon, that’s just me being somewhat optimistic and hopeful that that will happen.

I posted a video last week about basically how Mitch McConnell thinks that bankruptcy should be a legitimate option for states who are suffering severe revenue shortages in the wake of Coronavirus, well yesterday he kind of clarified, he basically said that he’s not saying that state bankruptcy is the answer, it’s just an option to be looked at, because you know states had financial problems that predated Coronavirus, and that he’s not interested in borrowing money from future generations to fix these old problems, but he also said, and I quote, “There probably will be another state and local funding bill, but we need to make sure that we achieve something that will go beyond simply sending out money.”

I personally think that’s a very fair statement.

And Mnuchin who’s been fairly even-keeled throughout this whole thing, obviously rah-rahing his own department, Treasury, he came out and said, “We’ll win this war, if we need to spend more money we will, and we’ll only do it with bipartisan support.”

But while McConnell seems to maybe be not backpeddling but kind of clarifying remarks, and Mnuchin kind of portraying himself as a middle-of-the-road nice guy, Trump tweeted yesterday, “Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?”

To be honest, I’m not sure that’s an entirely accurate statement by the president, particularly the “in all cases Democrat run and managed,” there are red states that aren’t doing too great as well, and remember even if Senate Republicans and Mitch take a softer stance with respect to the state and local funding that Pelosi and the Democrats are shooting for in the next relief package, Trump still has to sign it, but it would be a hugely, unpopular move for him to veto a bipartisan relief bill, so, we’ll see.

And Trump’s not the only one getting feisty by the way, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said just this morning that “this administration has been an abject failure at implementing most of these laws,” referring to the relief packages that have been passed since March.

Anyway, what else is new, politicians bickering.

I am getting really tired of these misleading headlines that I have to keep clarifying, but I have to do it, people keep asking about the $10,000 stimulus checks, and they’re seeing this from Meet Kevin: “Congress DEMANDS $10,000 Stimulus Checks,” and then to I suppose make himself feel better he puts EIDL Grants in parentheses afterward.

These are not stimulus checks, no legitimate news source is referring to the EIDL grants as stimulus checks.

But what he’s referring to here is a letter from house Democrats to Mnuchin and the head of the SBA, Jovita Carranza, saying hey, instead of $1,000 per employee for small businesses for these grants, you need to give the full $10,000 to all the small businesses who applied for EIDL grants because that is what we all thought would happen, and they politicize it and blame the Trump administration for this, but here’s the reality: the CARES Act says that small businesses may request an advance of “not more than $10,000.”

The law does not say that the SBA has to give you small business owners an advance of $10,000, it does not say that the SBA has to give you an advance at all, the CARES Act simply says you can request an emergency advance from the SBA of not more than $10,000.

Whether it’s granted or not, and if granted the amount in which it’s granted is not specified in the law and is therefore at the discretion of the Small Business Administration, and obviously they’re not going to give $10,000 to everybody who is suddenly a “small business owner” and fills out the 5-minute application on the SBA website, which, by the way, still is not open, you still can not apply, despite Meet Kevin telling over 1,000,000 people last week that they can get their $1,000 stimulus check, the lapse in appropriations notice is still there.

I mean, go to the 10:22 mark in this video, give him more ad revenue, I’m cool with it, he’s basically giving me this content to respond to, he basically says, “Not making a political statement, I’m just saying, the law said $10,000, and all of a sudden everybody ended up with $1,000 per employee, I got it, like we all adjusted to it.”

No, Kevin, you’re not making a political statement, but you’re making a misleading statement. The law did not say $10,000, the law said up to $10,000, the law did not say that SBA has to give you anything, the law said that you may request an advance from SBA, and so the SBA giving you or anyone else $1,000 per employee up to 10 employees is not inconsistent with the law.

Here’s the actual law:

You may request that the Administrator — and they’re referring to the SBA Administrator and by extension the SBA itself there — you may request that the Administrator provide an advance that is, subject to paragraph (3), in the amount requested by such applicant, and paragraph three says the amount of an advance provided under this subsection shall be not more than $10,000.

All it says is that you may request an advance, not that the SBA has to give you jack squat. So giving an advance of $1,000 per employee up to 10 employees is not contrary to the law.

If we want $10,000 grants, we’re going to need a much more stringent application process than a 5-minute online application, and this is just for the grant, as it exists, there’s like no underwriting — at least not from the applicant’s perspective — for the grant right now, the loan, yes, the grant, no, I filled out my application in 5 minutes for the grant and the loan, one application, I did a walkthrough video of it, and I got my EIDL grant for $1,000 for each of the employees, including myself, working in my business, no questions asked.

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By the way, McConnell, he fired some shots yesterday, he said that Americans don’t need “tangential left-wing daydreams” and that Congress shouldn’t get “distracted by pre-existing partisan wish-lists or calls to paper over decades of reckless decisions that had nothing to do with COVID-19,” oh and by the way, he said, “I look forward to seeing all my colleagues next Monday,” how about that.

I am looking forward to it as well, I think we’re gonna have some real showdowns on Capitol Hill about the next relief bill, I think that there will be more hills to die on, so to speak.

Remember the CARES Act, they had to get that thing out quickly, they had to do something or there would have been blood on the streets, so to speak, but now, that sense of absolute urgency of having to get something out, that urgency that led to the CARES Act passing in March, I don’t think we’re going to see that absolute urgency, I think there will be a sense of urgency, but not that sense of absolute urgency that we saw in March, I don’t think we’re going to see that in May.

I think the politicians may not be so open to finding middle ground, I think it’s going to get nasty, and I look forward to talking about it right here on the channel when Congress is back in D.C. next week.