xtr

The $75,000 number was being thrown out earlier when they were talking about who should get money, and including the possible $1,000 payment. That figure was being used by some people who was saying that everyone who made underneath that amount should be sent the $1,000 that was initially suggested. This newest plan by Mitch McConnell does seem closer to a tax credit. (It reminds me of the earned income credit) And from what I heard/read is that around $50,000 are the ones that will benefit the most from this plan. People in that income range are the ones who are most likely to get the $1,200 credit. People who made beneath that range in 2018 (between $2,500-less than $50,000) in earned income would get the $600 credit. I'm not sure what exact figure a person would have to make to get the full $1,200 amount, but my boss mentioned that people in the $50,000 range would benefit the most from this plan. And that it could phase out around $99,000 which would stop the higher income people from getting it. The article that was posted pointing out the problems with this plan did give an example of how an adult making $35,000 wouldn't qualify for the full $1,200 and only get $600. It was used as an example to show how this current proposal would give less money to lower income people. (Even though they need the most assistance.)

Going to smaller stores is a good suggestion. Sometimes you can look in them and find some things you need. I have to think at some point that some (maybe a lot) of these people that are selfishly hoarding, (especially those that are repeat offenders) will be low on funds. And maybe they won't have the money to keep going out and buying up stuff that other people need. The hoarding is wrong, there is enough supplies for everyone and what they are doing is selfish and also possibly wasteful. If someone who lives by themselves or has a small family (and even some with larger families) keeps hoarding stuff especially perishable items that stuff could spoil/expire before they eat it. I usually grocery shop once a week, and buy just what I need for the week. ( I love to cook but I shop like this so I don't buy too much food and have a lot of waste). Though this last go around, I did end up doing two weeks worth of grocery shopping. And I'm glad I did because a lot of the meat and stuff was sold out in grocery stores where I live too. And going back to the conversation a few of us were having some pages back about the store running out things like chicken, meat, etc.... Here is some more suggestions if you go somewhere and want to find stuff like some meat/protein and there out of packages of chicken/steak: Try the frozen food aisle. Sometimes you can find vacuum packed fish like salmon there. And if push comes to shove they could have frozen fish fillets/fish sticks. Chicken wings, tenders and nuggets are also in this aisle. And you can even find whole frozen chickens, and cornish hens in this aisle. Look at the aisle where the sandwich meat and bacon normally is. That's usually a separate aisle than the regular meat aisle. Sometimes in this aisle, not only can you find sliced meat and bacon, but things like sausages, including ground italian sauces. You can also find things like slabs of ribs, including pre cooked seasoned/sauced ribs, and also containers of pulled pork, pulled chicken and pulled ribs in this aisle. Try the deli where you can order sliced meat. And also sliced cheese. Hopefully, they haven't run out of meat/cheese in that section.And a lot of times they will have a different assortment of cheeses there. Granted is more expensive than the regular meat/cheese aisles, but that could be an option for people who want some meat/dairy. Often times you can find cooked Rotisserie chicken over there and things like prepared chicken and tuna salad. Sometimes they will have fried chicken over there as well. If your store is running low on fruits/vegetables, you can also try the frozen aisle and get frozen packs of those things.

Last night during an office call for work, we learned a few more details about this potential plan from my boss. Right now it's being based off of the 2018 Tax Return, and people who have not filed that return yet, should think about doing so. There is also rumblings they could look or maybe even change it to the 2019 return. But right now it's just 2018. The people that may benefit the most from this plan (and more likely to get the full $1,200 amount) are people that make around $50,000 a year. And I believe that is per individual not household. The average household in America makes around $61,000. So it's very possible that many adults will not get this full amount. And it was stated that the stimulus amount would phase out around $99,000. So right now if this bill is passed it, looks like a lot of people, (probably most) would get less than the $1,200 amount Mitch McConnell is touting. A lot of people would only get the $600 amount. (Which is better than nothing, but people getting at least $1,000 would be more beneficial, especially as more and more people are being put out of work.) I do think this plan could leave a lot of people out, including unemployed people, severely underemployed people, grown full time students (like college age and up), disabled people, etc... And also people who are afraid to file their 2018 return for some reason. (Like maybe they owe student loans and don't want their refund completely taken.) Though anyone that makes over a certain amount, should be filing, regardless of what happens to the refund. (If they're not filing, that could come back to haunt them.)

This plan is definitely no where near as good as just sending everyone $1,000 per adult and $500 per child. It looks like people that didn't work in 2018 (or had income of less than $2,500) would get nothing. And as the author pointed out in the thread, it doesn't seem like it will create relief for a lot of other areas including not helping a lot of workers who will lose their jobs, or giving fiscal relief to states.

In addition to Tax Day being moved payments, Trump has said that Federally student loan payments could be suspended for 60 days without penalty or interest. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/03/20/trump-temporarily-suspends-payments-on-federal-student-loans/

It seems like some of the Republicans want to do different things. There is a report that said that Lindsey and Mark was trying to get the president not to do these payments. And then Lindsey came out and said that he was willing to pay up to 75% of people's income going up to $80,000. Mitt Romney was in support of one $1,000 check and said he was trying to work on some type of compromise with Lindsey to convert funding for the second check into more unemployment benefits. Another republican senator was saying that the GOP was considering making payments for individuals who make under $95,000 a year and couples who make under $190,000. And there are some who just say they want to give people cash payments in general. Here is an article mentioning these things: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/coronavirus-relief-lindsey-graham-mark-meadows-pushing-trump-to-oppose-cash-payouts/ I like the two payments of $1,000 for all adult americans. and $500 dollars for each child. It's simple and won't take as much time as other plans would. A lot of people are going to need money quickly especially as more and more businesses are shutting down and people are losing their jobs.

I hope you guys can end up doing something for them, though it may be later on. Some of my co-workers had brought this up at work, and they were suggesting maybe some schools could do something for kids in the fall, if they were able to do so. I hope that a lot of people who will be getting their hair/nails done during these last couple of days will give their stylists/barbers/technicians nice tips. This is going to hit them hard like is hitting other people in other industries. I wonder if they will end up doing this in other states. I'm get my hair done often. I always tip my hair stylist, but I'm going to give her an even bigger tip than usual next week. So she can have at least a little more money in case NC decides to do something like this as well in the future. Though, I don't know that they will go that far. (So far to my knowledge we've only had one confirmed case of the virus in our county and no one has died from it.) The mayor did issue a state of emergency here the other day, but he said that he wasn't shutting down businesses. And that one of the reasons he called the state of emergency is because some businesses/people can get some type of relief, if that is officially called. Also, some of the banks and financial institutions, where I live have now closed down the lobbies and will only do drive thru telling or talk with people on the phone. I wonder what other cities/states have banks where they are closing down lobbies. I could see things getting really backed up, especially if they do send out the stimulus checks, if these banks shut down for a while.

According to the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin the deadline to file taxes has been extended from April 15 to July 15th:

Right now he's currently talking about fast tracking anti viral treatments for patients with coronavirus.

Yeah, I just read hey would like to get checks out within the next three weeks I also read that the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is saying right now they are looking at plan to possibly give every american adult $1,000. If people have children they could get an additional $500 for each child. And then six weeks from now if this still a crisis there could a second disbursement of $1,000 for each adult/another $500 for each child. Here is an article talking more about this. And also what financial help may also be given to some businesses/industries: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/488412-mnuchin-americans-could-get-two-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-within-9

Thanks. I think that Nancy along with some other people who support means testing are worried that money will be "wasted" on the rich people in this country if universal income is supplied to everyone. But I think that if the best way to make sure most Americans get some extra (and often times much needed) financial help is to also to give the rich a check,too, so be it, IMO. In the grand scheme of things there are way more people who could use this money than there are rich people. And the rich can always donate their money to Charity or put it back into the economy if they choose. (And I believe that some of them will do that.) Means testing could help a lot of needy people fall through the cracks and will take more time, than distributing checks for Americans. One of the suggestions that I saw it was reported Nancy suggested would be to do refundable tax credits. That could benefit people in the future, but that's not going to be of much help right now for a lot of people. A lot of people have already filed their taxes this year, especially people with families. And usually tax returns with refundable credits taken longer to process, because often times the IRS is holding them over long due to checking for things fraud. For example the IRS didn't really start processing returns with Earned Income Credit, Additional Child Tax Credits/Education Credits until February 15 this year. (Returns that fall underneath the PATH ACT) Even if people with these types of returns filed them as soon as the IRS opened on January 27th. And not too long ago, the IRS told people that they were holding some of these types tax returns for at least an additional 45 days, after the Feb 15th date.. (And I've heard as high as 60 additional days from people. I've seen reports about these things at work). It could be quite a while before people get a refundable tax credit due to this. And if they have those other credits, it could prolong their refund even more. If Nancy wants to do a refundable tax credit for next year's return in addition, to cash payments, I think that would be fine. (And I did see somewhere on Twitter, she was open to that, but still wanted to do means testing.) But I think think it's best if people aren't means tested for this. I hope they can get this passed, I think they could if people are more cooperative. It actually seems like Trump is in favor of this. I read that Andrew Yang was actually in contact with him about this. (Which I think makes sense, given Andrew was one that was really pushing for this earlier when he was running for president.)

I see a lot of people are understandably upset about the stimulus plan not getting passed right now. Many of them are posting on Twitter under the #PeoplevsPelosi trend. They are blaming Nancy Pelosi for reportedly being against a cash transfer for Americans, because it's being reported she wants to do means testing. I do agree that means tested is not the best way to try and get the payments to people, for lots of reasons. Here are some of the reasons that were highlighted by this post on Twitter: Most people could definitely use the extra money especially right now with people losing jobs and a lot of uncertainty going on in the economy due to the coronavirus: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/18/refusal-pelosi-consider-universal-cash-payments-response-coronavirus-pandemic?amp&__twitter_impression=true

I want to touch on some comments mentioned by posters here about some of the recent events that have been going on: It's unfortunate that children, including high school kids have to miss out on special moments like prom. I wish something could be done for them down the line to help make up for some of the stuff they are losing out on. It is very unfortunate that people in France are being permitted from even taking a walk outside. I love exercising and not being able to exercise at all, would be rough. It's bad enough that people are already feeling pretty cooped up. Exercising like walking can be very relaxing and not only benefits people's physical health, but often times benefits them mentally and emotionally. I did see that at least LA has closed down places like gyms as well. The gym here is still open (I've been going late at night, when hardly anyone is around) And late last night I saw they have blocked off several of the machines to create at least six feet of distance between people. Stuff like this could help and make people safer, but still allow them to work out, at least in some places. Also I saw that the Governor of NC had mandated that restaurants no longer be open for dine in. When I first heard that he did mandated something for the restaurants I was concerned they wouldn't be allowed to be open at all. And this is not because I love to eat out/eat out a lot. (I love to cook and don't eat out much.) I was just concerned for restaurants and their employees and how this would impact their business and wages. I'm glad they can still do takeout, delivery, etc...) I will start to order at least a little more takeout to help support them during these times. I feel bad for people like the waiters, servers, bartenders, etc..., who are going to lose a lot of work/wages. I wish they would end up getting some type of financial help. And while talking to an elderly client today, and trying to figure out how to best provide a service for him. (He didn't really want to come into an office and also didn't have a computer to do a virtual appointment), I thought of some ways that people can help the elderly/people with compromised health during this time. If you have an elderly relative or client that may need to come in for some type of appointment you can do things like: Try to schedule the appointment as early as possible. Try to aim to get them the earliest appointment in a day. They can be the first person in a place and get out of there before more people start to come in. This could even apply to something like a hair appointment. A lot of elderly women (including very old ones) get their hair done every couple of weeks. Try to arrange for them to be seen early, or maybe even see if the hairdresser can come in even earlier than the shop is usually open to accommodate them. Depending on what your business may do, you can offer to help serve them virtually. Though, I have found that quite a few elderly people are not really tech savvy or even own computers. Their kids/grandkids/family members need to help them out here. (And I know that a lot of family members already do this). Ask them if they need anything done and help set up virtual stuff for them. If they don't have kids/grandkids or any nearby a neighbor could check in on them and try and help out as well. Also see if there are drop off options for them if they aren't tech savvy and don't have anyone that can help them do virtual stuff from home. They can drop stuff off and then get out of a business as quickly as possible and pick it up later. Or family members can also drop off stuff for them. Family/friends/businesses try to help them as much as you can.

They weren't trying to get that steak, they spent that steak money on toilet paper, lol. I bought some at the commissary, (which does have it considerably cheaper than the regular grocery stores.) largely due to the chicken being gone. (Outside of the ground chicken, which I got a pack of.) Sometimes I will go the commissary around a military payday, and they will be really low on items chicken, so I have to rethink things a bit, if I planned to cook with chicken. But I make it work. On the positive note, even though people are buying up stuff like chicken, there still is in general enough food for people. Though, of course dietary needs and costs could and do impact things as well. I'm not one that would try to go vegetarian and I definitely don't want to go vegan lol, (though I do love vegetables and eat a lot of them). Though, people are definitely free to go that route if they want to. But here are some more suggestions for people who primarily eat poultry/fish as their protein source, if a store is out of regular chicken. When you go to the grocery store and this happens you can try seeing if they have ground chicken or turkey. Or see if they have whole chickens or smaller hens for sale, which sometimes might be in another aisle. Sometimes they also have chicken/turkey sausages and sometimes you can find things like salmon in the refrigerated/frozen aisles.

Good advice, Khan. People need to relax and I do think it would benefit a lot of people if they took a break from Twitter, several of them have been obsessing over this in an unhealthy manner for the past few days. Tonight is the night in a few night where there are actually other trending topics in the top 4 trends that aren't directly related to the coronavirus. Some people stay on places like Twitter all day obsessing over that and it's not healthy. They need to step away, spend some time with their family, watch TV, eat a good meal, do some exercise or something to help and try lessen the stress they are feeling from all of this stuff connected to the virus. Their anxiety/stress will probably escalate if they don't take a breather, especially with more restrictions/recommendations being put out by various leaders in different communities. Also, going back to the hoarding discussion, I went to the commissary today on base, with my dad (He has base access and a lot of times I will go up there with him to grocery shop), we saw this man and his wife buy nine packages of toilet paper. He had several packs that had at least 12 rolls in them and some that had at least four, maybe even six rolls in them. I'm not sure what the exact combination he had of both packs, but at bare minimum he had at least around 80 rolls, If not more. Him and his wife looked like they were in their mid 50's and I didn't see any kids with them or anything. They didn't need all of that toilet paper. I also saw another man who had two twelve packs, and decided not to purchase one of them in the line. He felt it was ridiculous, and he didn't want to be a hoarder. And he did have a family, but couldn't bring himself to buy the two packs. I bought one large pack and then a smaller pack for one of my co-workers, who said she only had two rolls left at home. The commissary did have some packages left, (They do a really good job of restocking), which was good, because the toilet paper is sold out off of base in the city. I also noticed that a lot of things were sold out like chicken (with an exception being ground chicken), and that pasta sauce was almost sold out. I went to another grocery store and saw that the chicken was sold out there as well. But there was plenty of beef and steak, nobody was trying to hoard that. (Even though the beef in the commissary is cheap, though it's definitely more expensive in other grocery stores).

Thanks, hopefully the stores will restock here soon. I got an email from Walmart saying they will do their best to get things restocked for their customers all over the US. Hopefully, other stores are following suit. I do think that a lot of people are concerned because there doesn't seem to be a real plan and it's causing them to really panic. Plus, they may feel like information is being withheld. It seems like a lot of places are on a bit of a shutdown for at least a couple of weeks. I'm curiously as to what the plan is afterwards. What is the governments ultimate goals here. What exactly would be an acceptable response/outcome for many people in the general public. People say they want to slow this virus down. But how much does it need to slow down to have them end shutdowns? (I wonder about this while I see tweets on Twitter, of people acting like everyone is going to be in danger/almost everybody could die, because someone decides to sit down in a restaurant to eat. See the Red Robin trend on Twitter, right now) Or prevent things from being shutdown longer. I believe that 49 people have died so far. What if at least few more people die after some of these shutdowns happen? (Which is likely). Goodness forbid if it's several. Regardless of what people do, the mortality rate on this is not going to be 0%, before or after the shutdowns are over. I think that people need to be realistic and honest about things. It's good to be careful, but things can't be shut down forever. I think that if Trump's response had been more like Obama's was to the swine flu, people would feel better. But a lot of them feel scared and unsure and it's causing them to really panic.

I can understand why people are concerned and want to be cautious. That being said, I definitely think you bring up a lot of good points. I don't think that some (maybe even a lot of the) panicking is doing more harm than good. Including people panicking and doing all of the hoarding and as well as causing people (especially those who suffer from it) to have anxiety. I do believe that if the average person got this they will end up being fine. Of course people need to be concerned about the most vulnerable like the elderly, people with compromised immune systems. But one of the best things a lot of people can do for them is to try and remain calmer and also keep ourselves healthy. Doing things like cutting down on large public gatherings could definitely help but people can't stay completely shut down forever. And I also think that some people are stigmatizing this disease and the people who get it, which I think is wrong. Some people have been acting like it's the bubonic plague and others are acting like it's a dangerous STD and that people that got it have behaved in some sort of very shameful behavior. Granted, there are people that get it like Rudy Gobert who have acted irresponsibly. But the average person that gets it, didn't do anything to intentionally get it or want to intentionally pass it on to someone else. I do agree about people being a bit OTT, acting like it's going to be an automatic death sentence. (With an exception being vulnerable people.) If healthy people do our best to stay healthy, that will help the more vulnerable people among us. And of course do whatever we can to help them while this is going on. We had a elderly client today call into the office at least five or six times, because he was worried about not being able to come into his appointment. Him and his wife have health issues that leave them compromised. He doesn't have a computer, and I don't think would know how to set up the virtual stuff. But we were able to work with him and set it up so his sister could get his paperwork/info to us. People should definitely help elderly people/compromised people in times like this, and do what we can to look out for them. And remain calmer so they don't panic even more than they already are.

My pregnant co-worker was upset today because her husband was out shopping for the and he said that the store was out of diapers. She's six months pregnant and was really worried about that, because she also has an 18 month old at home and she only had one pack of diapers left. Thankfully when someone went on break, they were able to go out and find a pack of a diapers for her, in one of the stores. (Though, my other co-worker stated it was one of the few packs left and it was a small pack) But people really do need to stop with the hoarding of important items. They are being incredibly selfish. My dad told me that he saw a lady with two shopping carts of toilet paper, coming out of the store today, leaving the shelves completely bare. I went to three stores today and they were all out of toilet paper. Thankfully, I have some rolls at home. I also saw someone on Twitter say that their friend bought 14 cases of water. Nobody needs that much water, unless they have an incredibly large family at home. (Which I don't think that person did, they may have even been single/childish).People are being so greedy, it's okay to get a little extra in order to prepare, but it's wrong to take way more than you need. This is trifling IMHO. Maybe some of these people will end up becoming low on money from all of this selfish, greedy, hoarding. And maybe that will enable some other people of having a chance to get what they need, when the stores restock.

He was running his hands all over reporters microphones and a table they were on. He reportedly joked about the coronavirus. Some of us had posted the video of that in this thread already, but here it is again, if you missed it: Looking at these recent reports about him, it sounds to me like he might have been purposely touchy feely with the other players and their belongings. The fact that the Jazz players disclosed that he was doing this in the locker rooms privately leads me to believe he was acting like that. NBA players usually are tight knit and will usually show physical affection towards each other like hug/dap each other up. But it sounds like Rudy was going beyond that and perhaps intentionally being too touchy with them and their belongings. I sincerely hope that no other player test positive for this and that no one else that Rudy/Donovan interacted with got this virus. But they did interact with a lot of people and played against several teams, who in turn played against several other teams. Here's hoping this isn't some terrible chain reaction that is about to happen to the NBA, and other workers, staff/family members of the players as a result of this. I also wonder how Rudy initially contacted the virus. Donovan's locker is right next to Rudy's, so he was in very close contact with him on a daily basis, which could have led to him getting it.

Another NBA player, a talented young player named Donovan Mitchell has now tested positive for Coronavirus. Jazz players have said that Rudy Gobert has been careless in the locker room touching players and belongings. I hope that Donovan recovers from this and that no other player has it. But now that two players have it's even more concerning. All of the Jazz players were tested last night. It's unfortunate that Rudy was irresponsible like this. ETA': I'm now reading reports that Donovan was the only other player out of the 58 jazz players to test positive for this virus. Thank goodness. But I'm still concerned about other people who was in contact with Rudy.

NBA players at tonight's game are currently being tested. I hope that none of them have the virus or anyone else that Rudy may have come in contact with. He has played in multiple games the past couple of weeks.

The NBA has now suspended it's season. This feels very surreal.

I hope that Tom and Rita end up being okay. I have always loved Tom. Also, one of the NBA games between the Thunder and Jazz was abruptly cancelled. There is concern because some of the players including Jazz player Rudy Goebert had come down with an illness. Also, a few days ago, Rudy did touch multiple microphones and all over an area as a joke after he talked to the media. Here is video of this. Now there is a report that both the Jazz and Thunder locker rooms are quarantined. And now he has reportedly tested positive for Coronavirus:

I hope we can slow down the spread of this illness. In the meantime, people should definitely should do the best they can in trying not get this illness/spread it. Be sanitary, limit travel, limit hanging around in large gatherings etc... Which is pretty much what a lot of health experts and some other folks in this thread have mentioned. Though, some suggestions are not going to be plausible for a lot of people. Like working from home. Most people do not work from home and a lot really aren't able to do that. So that could definitely be a problem for people in their work situations going forward. I have my concerns about this illness for various reasons, including how it can affect people, their jobs and the economy. Last year at work three of my co-workers came in with the flu and almost our entire/office department became sick as a result of that. I fortunately did not and I was in there a few days working by myself, as I was the only who was able to come to work those days. It was incredibly busy. Thankfully we ended up managing fine business wise during those days, in spite of all of the employees who were out sick. We've always stressed not coming in when you're sick and things like wiping down with wipes, have a bunch of hand sanitizer in the office, etc... but that still happened. This year, people have been better about that, though I still have some co-workers who seems to always have a cold, coming to work. There are a couple that always seem to have one and quite frankly it concerns me. Even more so now with the threat of coronavirus. My boss did send out an email about how we could help clients with them stepping into the office, which is good, for those of them who may be sick. And in general. Some of them have cancelled appointments because they didn't want to come in sick,which is the right thing to do. If push come to shove, we could assist a lot of them, maybe even most of them online, with a lot of our services, them stepping foot into the office. But some of them would still want to come in and don't want to do the online stuff. And we still would have to physically be there. A few of us have worked remotely before when we had bad weather, but it's better for our business if we are in an office. My boss did mention in the email telling us to push doing more virtual stuff for them, as opposed to them coming in. So maybe more of them may take advantage of that. Though, general it will be hard for most working people to work from home. That just really isn't an option for a lot of people. Hopefully, they can help curtail this illness before a lot more people and businesses have to face that challenge.

I just saw on ESPN that the four major sports NBA, NFL, MLB, and MLS are shutting down access to the media in the locker rooms due to coronavirus. Only athletes and essential employees to teams will be allowed inside the locker rooms. https://wgem.com/2020/03/09/nba-nhl-mlb-major-league-soccer-to-restrict-access-to-locker-rooms-to-protect-players-from-exposure-to-coronavirus/