The Guardian 'One California mayor Unviversal basic information income advice...'
As the Trump administration and lawmakers in Washington debate cash payments to support Americans during the coronavirus crisis, the mayor of one California city that has experimented with universal basic income has advice.
Early findings from Stockton, California, which launched a basic income experiment last year, may offer American policymakers some reassurance – and a few notes of caution.
It’s “heartening” to see a national focus on providing direct cash assistance, said Michael Tubbs, Stockon’s 29-year-old mayor, who championed the city’s basic income experiment. But some choices in the current Republican plan make little sense to him, Tubbs said. “If someone was struggling more than others before a crisis, why should they get less help during a crisis that is going to hit them harder? It defies logic,” he said.
On Thursday, the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, proposed legislation to give middle-income Americans a single, $1,200 payout for each adult, plus $500 for each child in a family. The payments decrease for Americans who earn more than $75,000 a year, and individuals who make more than $99,000 will get nothing. The lowest-income Americans also get less: the plan includes a smaller, $600 payment to adults in some of America’s poorest families. Democratic lawmakers are calling for Americans to receive larger, recurring cash payments, with at least one plan calling for a monthly check of between $1,000 and $6,000.
We have to make sure that the most marginalized, the most impacted, the folks who were struggling the most before this pandemic get help
“We have to make sure that the most marginalized, the most impacted, the folks who were struggling the most before this global pandemic get help and relief,” Tubbs said.
“We have to make sure that the most marginalized, the most impacted, the folks who were struggling the most before this global pandemic get help and relief,” Tubbs said.