The federal checks coming to you soon are disaster relief, not economic stimulus. That may seem like a fine point, but what we call the checks matters. It expresses our values.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday called them “relief payments.” But almost everywhere one looks in the national press her comments are characterized as being about “stimulus checks.” So far, I cannot find White House or Democratic congressional leaders calling them that. Good. They are not stimulus. That word appears nowhere in the 628 pages of the ‘‘American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.”
The checks are disaster relief, “direct rescue checks,” President Biden called them in his national address Thursday night. Nowhere in his speech did he use the word stimulus.
In paraphrasing quotes, however, the national press uses stimulus checks almost exclusively even when no one quoted used the phrase. I’m making a tinfoil hat.
Biden says people will start getting stimulus checks this month as soon as House passes Covid relief bill (Biden never called them stimulus checks.)
Psaki says Americans can start seeing stimulus money in their bank accounts ‘as soon as this weekend’ (Psaki called them relief payments.)
Here’s when the IRS will start sending out $1,400 stimulus checks
Biden limits eligibility for stimulus payments under pressure from moderate Senate Democrats
Biden administration set to issue $1,400 stimulus payments
Third Stimulus Check: When Are the $1,400 Payments Coming and Who Is Eligible?
In fact, it is rare to find them called relief checks:
Message discipline seems decent for a change among Democrats, as exemplified by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) in speaking about the $1.9 trillion bill in February. Rescue now, stimulus later:
“That’s enough to rescue this economy [for now]. We’re going to have to stimulate the economy later on,” said Clyburn.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said weeks later:
“I don’t understand the political or economic wisdom in allowing Trump to give more people relief checks than a Democratic administration,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “People went far too long without relief last year — if anything we should be more generous, not more stingy.”
But the media are conditioned to view policies through the eyes of the economy rather than human ones. When people frame these checks as stimulus, they are showing everyone what they really value.
Point out to them their unconscious bias that puts saving the economy above saving people. The message is as pervasive as it is insidious. Money has a damned good agent.