Biden's New Limits on Stimulus Aid

President Biden speaking on the pandemic response today. [AFP/Jim Watson]

Yesterday President Joe Biden agreed to restrict eligibility for stimulus aid, making it likely that fewer people will get checks under Biden than under Trump. Remarkably, this was not a concession to Republicans, but to conservative members of his own party.

The new restrictions would limit payouts to millions of Americans who most people would call middle class. But quibbling over the correct income limits elides a more important point: means testing is pretty much always bad.

Fiscal conservatives from all parties love means testing, and not just to save a little cash in the short term. They love it because means-tested programs are ultimately easier to destroy. Recipients of means-tested programs tend to be poor – think of welfare programs that benefitted single mothers. And conservative politicians have long specialized in demonizing poor people as irresponsible parasites on the state – think of Ronald Reagan’s favorite racist trope, the “welfare queen.”

Universal programs are much harder to get rid of once they’re put in place because they have a bigger constituency that’s harder to dismiss. This explains why programs like Social Security are politically untouchable. The best way to build strong public support for a welfare program is by making it universal, and the same can be said of Covid-era efforts at keeping Americans afloat. Means testing may be good policy for a government prioritizing the rich, but as a way of helping those who actually need help it's a dangerous fantasy.