Opinion: Our leaders need to stop the stimulus check gaslighting

Democrats and the media have been repeatedly gaslighting the American people about the stimulus check. They have been repeatedly saying that the $2,000 stimulus checks were never really $2,000. Rather, they claim that it was always $1,400 added to the previous $600 stimulus checks provided during the Trump administration. This is categorically false. The Biden campaign, Democratic Senate campaigns in Georgia, and Democratic voices in general have been arguing for a $2,000 check for months. On January 5, now-Senator Jon Ossoff promised Georgia voters that if he was elected, Democrats “will be able to pass $2,000 stimulus checks for the people next week.” It is now February and while the $1,400 checks have passed in the House, the Senate has prioritized the impeachment trial and it is unknown when or if the checks will make it through the Senate.

Five days later on January 10, then-President-elect Joe Biden tweeted “$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. We need $2,000 stimulus checks.” A campaign ad for now-Senator Raphael Warnock, had this simple slogan: “Want a $2,000 check? #VoteWarnock.” Vice President Kamala Harris sent a $2,000 per month stimulus check bill to the Senate while she was still a senator. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “One of the first things that I want to do when our new senators are seated, is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families.” Finally, Biden promised that the money “would go out immediately,” even certifying “that’s not hyperbole, that’s real.” What is real, is that one-time $1,400 stimulus checks are what have been passed and it has not gone out immediately, in fact, it is being purposely delayed. Even if we choose to accept the logic of “$1,400 + $600 being a $2,000 check,” many people who received the $600 check will not be eligible to receive the $1,400 check. So it is not even really a $2,000 check by the Democrats’ own logic. For crying out loud, even Trump offered $2,000 checks.

So not only have the Democrats and Biden lied to the American people, their offer is less than that of Trump. The Democrats should be ashamed of their lying to the American people and the media should be as well, as they have failed to challenge the Democrats on this issue. One of the main purposes of the media is to hold politicians accountable and they are wholeheartedly failing on this subject. The Democrats should not be able to get away with this, but it seems they already have.