>> Universal basic income was a topic of discussion quite a bit during the Democratic primaries.
And it was because a Democratic candidate, Andrew Yang, kept bringing up the necessity
of $1,000 a month for every American.
Just so they can have some economic stability.
Now, whether you agree with that proposal or not, keep in mind that now there are Republican
lawmakers who are pushing for universal basic income.
We're about to have a discussion about whether or not it makes sense in this economic fallout
due to the coronavirus.
Now, according to The Washington Post, a growing number of conservatives are voicing concerns
about the Trump administration's proposed payroll tax cut.
With two lawmakers specifically, these are Republicans, Senators Mitt Romney and Tom
Cotton.
Calling for the federal government to instead send checks to Americans across the country.
In fact, in one Medium post, Tom Cotton wrote the following.
Let's cut out employers as the middle men and get relief to people not in weeks, but
in days.
We should send relief directly to American families most likely to be in need.
Those in the bottom and middle tax brackets.
To pay for rent, groceries, childcare, and other necessary expenses.
As well as to spend at local businesses that are hurting during this crisis.
So Tom Cotton also talked about this on Fox News.
Let's take a quick look at that video
>> Most of the measures in this bill are something that the senators will support, I believe.
Such as, for instance, waiving co-pays for testing, or ensuring that states have adequate
resources.
But we worry that the bill is setting up a new and complicated system relying on businesses
giving paid sick leave.
And then getting a refundable tax credit.
That won't move quickly enough, and could put pressure on those businesses to lay workers
off.
We don't wanna see layoffs.
We wanna see people who are at home, if they have any reason to be at home, supported immediately.
This is an emergency measure that only needs to last for a few weeks if we all take the
prudent steps necessary.
That's why I think we wanna use systems like, say, Treasury refunds to anyone who paid taxes
in 2018.
Or unemployment system or other social welfare agencies that are set up to quickly get cash
into the hands of affected workers and their families.
>> So I'm in favor of directly helping US workers.
As opposed to immediately thinking about ways to bail out the airline industries, and all
that.
We're seeing a lot of that from the Trump administration.
But Nando, I'm gonna go to you first, what are your thoughts on this?
And do you think that this is gonna hurt Democrats?
Because the people voicing support for this loudly are Republicans.
>> Well, yeah, I mean, it's the obvious, immediate move, is to just get cash in the hands of
people.
I mean, I don't know that we've all kind of internalized just how serious this situation
is, it's literally unprecedented.
All economic activity is gonna stop, or the vast majority of it.
We haven't seen anything like this ever, really.
So getting cash in the hands of people now is the obvious right move.
I mean, and it's fairly easy for the federal government to do.
They can send checks through the Social Security Administration, or however.
There's millions of ways for them to do it.
I mean, I think the key with any UBI proposal is whether it's coupled with something like
a rent moratorium and things like that.
And a mortgage moratorium and a student loan moratorium.
Because if you just give people $1,000 and then that money just goes straight to rent.
And that money then goes to landlords, as you said.
The biggest landlords in this country right now are BlackRock and Blackstone, these giant
financial firms.
So if you don't want it to be just a huge transfer to these companies, you couple it
with rent moratorium, mortgage moratorium, student loan moratorium.
All these things so that this money goes to living your life, feeding your family.
The basic necessities of life, that's what it needs to go, and it's the obvious move.
And the fact that Democrats are resisting it or not really embracing it.
I mean, some are, I mean, Ilhan Omar is putting out her own proposal, and things like that.
But it's the obvious move and it's urgent, they should do this immediately.
>> Yes- >> So real quick, Francesca, hold that thought.
Because I wanna go to this quick video of Steve Mnuchin.
He addressed the notion of UBI in the midst of this whole pandemic.
And a surprising statement from him, let's take a look.
>> President and I worked on a very significant economic stimulus plan.
We look forward to having bipartisan support.
We're now working with the Senate to pass this legislation very quickly.
And these will be payments to small businesses.
We've also talked about a stimulus package to the American worker.
You can think of this as something like business interruption payments for the American workers.
>> When you say a stimulus package for American workers, do you mean direct payments to Americans?
Or are you talking about a payroll tax holiday?
>> Although the president likes the idea of the payroll tax holiday, I will tell you what
we've heard from many people.
And the president has said we can consider this.
The payroll tax holiday would get people money over the next six to eight months.
We're looking at sending checks to Americans immediately.
And what we've heard from hard-working Americans, many companies have now shut down, whether
it's bars or restaurants.
Americans need cash now, and the president wants to get cash now.
And I mean now, in the next two weeks.
>> How much?
>> I will be previewing that with the Republicans.
There's some numbers out there.
>> It really does take the possibility of Trump not getting reelected for the Trump
administration to consider helping the average American worker.
>> Yeah, I mean, well, you just look at that whole scene.
And you're like, man, this crisis couldn't have happened to a worse group of people,
this gaggle of idiots.
It's like me being like, all right, cat, just like asking my cat to land a plane, I don't
know.
Or look at them, they're all so unprepared.
And they're unprepared when it comes to the economy, they are.
And let me just say about Tom Cotton, man.
If Tom Cotton tomorrow says he likes chocolate, stop eating chocolate immediately.
Whatever Tom Cotton wants, do the exact opposite.
There's something in the chocolate, all right?
I'm serious, Tom Cotton is living on the wrong side of history.
He was born on the wrong side of history, okay?
The whole thing, and this is the thing that annoys me the most.
UBI, absolutely, and coupled with a stronger social safety net, like people like Warren
and Sanders have proposed, is fine.
UBI without any social safety net is absolutely a right-wing dream come true.
Milton Friedman, the grandfather of neoliberal economics, wanted UBI too, why?
Because it's basically just a payoff of American workers to get them off your back.
And notice how right now we are cutting food stamps.
Food stamps have been cut, suddenly we wanna give $1,000, or whatever it is, to people.
No, why don't you just expand food stamps, and then we'll all get on it.
Put that money into a food stamp program so people who are not on it suddenly get $1,000
at Costco, or wherever it is, why not do that?
But it is a non-structural workaround in order to bide time.
>> Yeah, Richard Wolff talks about this a lot, actually.
Because I agree, if you have this comprehensive economic reform, where you really do have
a robust social safety net.
You have affordable housing, you have the ability to put food on the table for your
kids.
And then on top of that, you have this universal basic income.
Cool, but Richard Wolff talks about how, in a capitalistic society, especially late-stage
capitalism.
UBI is often thought of as a way to do the bare minimum to prevent a working-class uprising.
>> No, absolutely, I mean, all those things are 100% true.
I think the nature of this crisis, in which all economic activity is halting, it's not
because of there's a financial crisis.
It's that you literally cannot go to a store, you can't go to work.
It's a very specific kind of crisis in which something needs to be done.
Obviously, it needs to be coupled with all kinds of payment moratoriums so that costs
for the average person go down.
But you need to sort of keep people afloat somehow in the immediate term.
And this sort of checks to American families is the most immediate way to do it in the
short term, but that's the problem with UBI.
>> I'm like, they can't even get testing out.
In two weeks, are we also gonna get a test for COVID-19?
>> Well, hopefully, but they can't send checks.
>> Does it come with $1,000 on top?
>> Well, they send Social Security checks to people every month.
They could expand that easily to anyone.
But the other thing is what you're talking about, like cutting food stamps and all that
stuff.
The problem with something like the payroll tax holiday, which again, like they mentioned,
goes into effect six to eight months.
If you cut the payroll tax, that's what funds Social Security.
And what they're lining up to do is cut the payroll tax, defund the Social Security trust
fund.
And then couple years from now when we're more or less recovered-
>> I'm really glad- >> And then they're gonna be like, Social
Security, gotta cut it, gotta cut it.
>> I'm so glad you mentioned that, because I don't think that gets talked about in the
press enough.
Because what the Trump administration has been attempting to do.
Is exploit this pandemic to accomplish certain gross agenda items that they've been trying
to accomplish for a while, including gutting Social Security.
>> Yeah, it's the Naomi Klein shock doctrine playing out, right before our eyes.
Make a crisis- >> It sounds good, you're like, payroll taxes,
yeah, yeah, we won't have to pay those, right?
Wait a minute.
>> No, no, no, we need those, and again, poor people don't really pay a payroll tax.
The poorest Americans don't pay the payroll tax, just flat out.
>> Right, and I do wanna mention, it is important to differentiate between, all right, things
are functioning as they typically do.
And now we're having just a debate about whether universal basic income makes sense.
Totally agree with you guys that unless you have a robust social safety net, it doesn't
make sense.
It's just a way of keeping working people off the government's back.
But in this pandemic, I do worry, because my husband can't work.
He's a bartender, he's got no work.
>> I mean, I guess what I think is that there has to be a way to actually utilize whether
it's specifically working with the restaurant industry to help those bartenders.
Or friends of mine who are waiters or caterers or all that, domestic workers.
I myself am a comic, no comedians are doing shows right now, and not that we get paid
much money.
But is there a way to work within existing industries, rather than sort of just cutting
this check, which is so shortsighted and short term?
>> Well, the industries are stopped.
That's the problem, is that there is no activity, like you said.
So going through the businesses, it really is just like they're gonna take their cut.
>> But is it offering like restaurants a tax credit for the year if they don't lay off
an employee?
Do you know what I mean, something like that.
>> There should be definitely- >> I think they should do both.
>> Yeah, they should do both.
>> I mean, yeah, I think they should do both, and I-
>> Again, people are getting laid off today, today.
>> Right, and keep in mind, nearly 50% of Americans can't afford a $400 emergency.
So I do think that, given how the economy is completely halted because of the pandemic,
people do need cash in their hands to buy groceries.
So I think in the short term, it's part of what should be a more comprehensive solution.
>> Yeah, I mean, the other obvious one is debt relief.
>> Yeah, totally agree.
>> It needs to be coupled with debt relief.
I mean, no one's talking about that risk seriously.
I mean, there's been some sort of foreclosure stalls in California and other states, and
stuff like that.
But I mean, no student loan payments, no rent payments, no mortgage payments.
All these things have to stop, because the economy.
It's not that the economy is in trouble, it's that the economy
is stopped.
It's a different type of problem.