UBI Politics Part 1 - Georgetown 2023

Surveys show bipartisan support from voters
Danika Miller, 8-31-2020, (Danika Miller is a personal finance reporter at The Simple Dollar who specializes in banking, savings, budgeting, home insurance, and auto insurance. Her reporting has also been featured at CreditCards.com, Reviews.com, and elsewhere.) "Why Universal Basic Income Would Be Good for the Economy," Simple Dollar, https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/universal-basic-income-sees-rise-in-bipartisan-support/?pid=email_tsd
A new survey from Hill-HarrisX has found that bipartisan support for a universal basic income (UBI) has risen. According to the survey, 55% of registered voters are in favor of a UBI system — up 12% from the 2019 survey.
Democratic and young voters saw the largest increases in support. 36% of Republican voters are in favor, along with 71% of Democratic voters and 56% of Independent voters.
The survey was conducted in August 2020, the same month that saw weekly unemployment claims spike to over one million.
Universal basic income is an economic policy that guarantees every adult a certain level of fixed income from the government. Like a social security payment, except for everyone who doesn’t meet a certain annual income amount. The cornerstones to UBI are that it is paid on a recurring basis, in cash payments, paid to the individual (not household), is universal (no specific population) and unconditional.
Essentially, it aims to create a wage floor that can help raise people from poverty. The specific payment amount, where that money comes from and how it varies by state, are all variables that would depend on the legislation and who implemented it.
Economic instability is a key motivator for UBI support----COVID proves the trend---if we’re right about inequality, then UBI support is inevitable
Matt Stevens and Isabella GrullóN Paz, 3-18-2020, (Matt Stevens is an arts and culture reporter for The New York Times based in New York. He has previously covered national politics and breaking news for The Times.) "Andrew Yang’s $1,000-a-Month Idea May Have Seemed Absurd Before. Not Now. (Published 2020)," No Publication, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/politics/universal-basic-income-andrew-yang.html
To be sure, fear of an impending global pandemic resulting from a novel coronavirus was not the reason Mr. Yang spent months insisting the federal government provide American adults with a universal basic income of $1,000 per month. But a global pandemic has arrived. And the fallout from the outbreak has plunged the country into a grim and uncertain reality.
So only now — with millions of Americans facing the prospect of no work and wondering how they will pay the bills — have proposals similar to Mr. Yang’s signature policy prescription gained wide, bipartisan approval. In the sort of political turnabout that may only be possible when society faces dire need, giving free money to Americans suddenly appears not only rational but critically necessary to many Democrats and key Republicans.
In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Mr. Yang expressed confidence that legislation would soon put some form of basic income or stimulus checks into Americans’ bank accounts. “This thing is going to pass,” he said. “And it’s going to pass for a very obvious reason: Money in our hands is vital to prevent our economy from collapsing.”
Over the past week, proposals to dole out direct payments to workers and their families while schools and businesses shut down have come from progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, moderate Democrats like Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and Republicans like Senator Mitt Romney of Utah.
Those calls for relief were bolstered by the White House, which got behind the idea of rapidly sending money to Americans. An outline of a Treasury Department proposal obtained Wednesday by The New York Times called for sending two rounds of checks directly to taxpayers on April 6 and May 18. Payments would be fixed and their sizes dependent on income and family size, according to the outline, which put the cost of each payment at $250 billion, part of a $1 trillion economic stabilization package.
Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing on Wednesday, President Trump said the exact amount of the checks was still “to be determined,” while lauding the talks surrounding the payments as “very bipartisan.”
Mr. Yang said he would recommend payments of $1,000 per adult and $500 per child in the near term with the hope that they could continue in perpetuity.