Even fierce critics of Biden embrace stimulus checks
Evangelical Christians and smallgovernment activists, among the fiercest critics of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress, are finding solace in $1,400 stimulus checks that some are sharing with churches and political causes.
In a January Bible study livestream, Virginia pastor E.W. Jackson said two Georgians headed for the U.S. Senate were “demoniacally possessed” and their fellow Democrats were “cursing” the country by supporting abortion access and gay rights. Newly minted Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were key to Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which passed the Senate with no Republican support.
But as the stimulus checks they enabled arrive, Jackson said his followers should have no qualms about accepting the Democrats’ largess — and passing 10% to his ministry, the 100-member Called Church of Chesapeake.
“They tithe the income they have coming in. That includes the stimulus,” said Jackson, 69, the founder of a conservative political-action committee and an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senate and Virginia lieutenant governor. “Whenever God gives us increase, whatever the source might be, we give some to God to acknowledge that it comes from Him.”
Not much objection to the checks has circulated among members of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, according to pastor Robert Jeffress, who has called the Democratic Party “godless,” and in January told Fox News host Lou Dobbs that the Biden administration was pushing “a hard-left agenda down the throats of Americans.”
“If someone feels guilty, give it to a homeless site, food bank, church,” said Jeffress, 65, a member of former President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board. “Remember, this money isn’t coming out of Joe Biden’s wallet or a Democratic checking account.”
The Biden administration is racing to spend the latest round of pandemic relief, part of more than $5 trillion authorized over the past year. At the same time, the federal debt in 2021 will exceed the U.S. gross domestic product for the first time since the end of World War II, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Fitch Ratings, in a March 9 report, found that the 2021 stimulus “will deliver a strong economic boost” but will drive up deficits and debt. “Consequently, the prospect of debt stabilization is further away” than when the company assigned a negative outlook to its U.S. sovereign AAA rating in July 2020, Fitch wrote.
The Trump and Biden administrations bungled the stimulus, argued Joe Bishop-Henchman, national chairman of the Libertarian Party, which espouses minimal government and considers the debt among the most serious threats to U.S. security and stability.
“With all the disruption from the virus, incompetent government response and shutdowns, relief was absolutely needed,” Bishop-Henchman, who also is a vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, wrote in an email. “However, what Congress passed was poorly targeted and leaves an enormous debt burden for the next generation.”
Some Libertarian Party members said they will nevertheless spend their $1,400 checks, which total $400 billion. They are going to individuals with less than $75,000 in adjusted gross income.
“I have accepted and used the stimulus checks sent to me, as I consider them to be a return of some of the tax money I’ve had to pay to the federal government,” Diona Kozma, a real-estate agent who is vice chairwoman of the Broward County Libertarian Party in Florida, wrote in an email.
Steven Nekhaila, chairman of the Florida Libertarian Party, said the state committee last year contacted members about donating the Trump stimulus to their cause.
“We did send the email asking folks, ‘Hey, look, what better way to fight government spending and over-reach,’ ” Nekhaila said. “We did get some nice response. We’ll probably be doing it again.”
Francis Wendt, a 39-year-old sales manager and national Libertarian committeeman from Montana, said he was furloughed for about three months during the pandemic. He will put the cash toward child expenses.
“The baseline Libertarian message is family and livelihood before politics, always,” Wendt said. “I do need to provide for my family.”