efforts and make them more effective and efficient. thank you. white house press secretary jen psaki is briefing today. she's expected to start at 1:30 eastern, and we'll have live coverage when she starts right here on c-span3. tonight the late capitol police officer brian sicknick lies in honor in the u.s. capitol rotunda and wednesday morning a congressional tribute. officer sicknick died of injuries he sustained during the violent attack on the capitol on january 6th. watch live tonight at 9:30 p.m. and wednesday at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app. two competing coronavirus

relief plans on capitol hill, one, the biden plan, the so-called american rescue plan. that $1.9 trillion plan, that plan includes $1,400 stimulus checks for americans and various eligibility requirements for those checks. the other plan that we're hearing about this week, that so-called gang of ten, republican plan proposed by ten republican senators. also includes stimulus checks but those would be $1,000 and lower caps in eligibility. we are asking you if crafting the plan who should receive the next round of stimulus checks from the government and how would you -- how much would you make those checks for? give us a call and let us know. phone lines are split up by income level. if you made under $30,000 of last year, is 202-748-4,000. if you made up to $49,000, 4001

and if you made over $100,000 last year, 2020 2sh-748-8003. edream is up first out of sylvester georgia for those who made under $30 last year. good morning. >> good morning. >> hello. >> who should be eligible for the next round of stimulus checks? >> caller: yes, sir. >> how would you do it? what would the requirements be, and how much should they be for? >> caller: they should be for at least $2,000 and for the people that make only $30,000. >> do you think -- so you would only give to people who make under $30,000 a year? >> caller: yes, sir. >> sam is in leesberg, virginia.

good morning. >> caller: good morning. i think it's interesting that they have us fumbling over how much these individual checks should be when in reality a lot of other countries in the world are giving these checks more regularly, but i feel like they are keeping us distracted arguing over how much these checks should be every eight months rather than giving us the checks more regularly. to answer the question i would say it's tough because obviously $2,000 goes a lot farther nor rural wyoming as compared to northern virginia or san francisco, but to accommodate for those folks that have higher cost of living i would say under $120,000 would be an okay number for those checks and i think it should be the full at least. >> under $120,000 for individuals or joint filers. >> i'm sorry. under $120,000 for individuals, at least for household. i know that median comfortable

income for san francisco which is the highest cost of living in the country, they say it's $120,000 which i think is crazy. it's obviously more than that, but at least to accommodate for some of those higher cost of living folks it needs to be a little bit higher than what the rest of the country, and i know if they are making $120,000 in bradford, virginia, that's going to buy you a lot of property, but -- so there will be some people that don't necessarily need it. >> the difference we're talking about between the biden proposal and the $1,400 checks and larger caps here versus the republican proposal, $1,000 checks and a smaller cap on who gets is it $245 billion. the biden plan would spend $465 billion on specifically the stimulus payments. the gop plan $220 billion. i guess the question is are you concerned about the amount of money we're spending here? are you concerned about debt and

deficit in this country right now? >> >> caller: i'm not. i'm a person guy. i'm hoping that as biden gets a little -- pushed a little farther to the left as we make cuts in other programs that have been receiving these extravagant numbers for decades and decades then i think it will be fine, but people really need help, and i know the individual checks would also and also if they can get more ppp to the small businesses so people can get more reliable income from their jobs. no, i'm not worried about the increased deficit. i think we have to do it. >> are you worried about biden cutting a deal with republicans here? >> no, no. i think it would be a positive thing. i mean, if they can bring more people to the table, that's good for future deals so let's work together. >> two routes right now for a coronavirus package to move on capitol hill. democrats on capitol hill preparing the budget reconciliation route.

it would allow them to move a covid relief bill through the senate on just a majority vote. the more regular way to move bills, of course, through the senate is with 60 votes and those 10 republican senators have reached out with this bipartisan bill so it's a question right now what have will happen here. will democrats go the budget reconciliation route or make some sort of deal with republicans to get the ten votes needed? we'll be watching throughout the week for that, but that's one of the questions that remains this morning as we talk about covid relief. bill is in mclean, virginia. that line for those who made over $100,000 last year. who should get the stimulus checks, bill? >> caller: well, i think an appropriate mechanism would be to target the stimulus checks to the people that were impacted. i think it's challenging because a lot of the -- a lot of the last stimulus were based off of

2019 earnings where people didn't show impact. if you earned over the maximum and 2019 you didn't receive anything for early stimuluses but i can tell you for a lot of people who have dual income with kids where the schools are closed and one of the parents has to take off of work to -- to, you know, do the proctor of the schooling, there's definitely been a huge impact on those families, so i think a more appropriate mechanism might be rather than looking at 2019 earnings, why don't they do a comparison between 2019 and 2020 and if you've been impact, say your income fell by some percentage, 20%, then you get stimulus. i don't understand why if you earn under a certain amount but your earnings haven't been impacted, why would they provide a stimulus check for those individuals if they haven't been impact, it doesn't make any sense? >> right now one. questions is getting this out the door, right? are you talking about waiting

until april 15th, until everybody files their 2020 taxes and making that comparison because we're talking several months down the road then. >> well, it's about two months, right? i don't think several is primpt yeah, you can file your taxes, and then if you've been impacted by, it then you would receive stimulus in that form. otherwise you're just blowing out money to a lot of people who haven't really been impablgtd. like, for example, senior citizens, i can say personally, you know, my parents are senior citizens, and they received stimulus checks but they have zero impact. they are not leaving the house, staying home and they actually saved money and spent fewer dollars than they received in the past and they received stimuluses and we lost approximately 50% of our income because my wife is home doing home schooling. >> bill, we had a caller in the first segment talking about this saying move this money instead

to instead of direct stimulus checks to unemployment insurance because those people have been impacted by this, because that's a better way to avoid waste, of giving money who don't need it. what do you think about that effort rather than putting it to checks out to people, putting more in unemployment insurance? >> i agree with that 100%, and i think the arguments that unemployment -- i think that the unemployment payments should be commensurate with what they earned also. the previous plan where they gave $600 per week, you had a lot of people who -- i mean in essence that works out if you're earning under $30 a hour you made more money being unemployed. i understand we near a pandemic. people would rather stay unemployed. it should unemployment and unemployment should never be more than you earned while you were working. >> thanks for the call. just a comparison of extended unemployment benefits between

the two plans. the gang of ten republican plan includes $300 a week supplemental through june. the biden plan is $400 a week through september. again, that's unemployment insurance. we're talking about direct stimulus checks, asking how you would craft those and who they should go to. john, essex maryland, the line for folks who make under $30 a yee. good morning. >> caller: yes, sir. i listen to you all the time. i'm glad you keep your bias down. the i am going crazy listening to people talking about giving away all this money. one of the things i learned back in school was you just can't keep printing money. i've seen pictures of people in other countries carrying wheelbarrows full of money. how long before that happens here? number up, and i didn't catch what australia did right and we did wrong about handling the virus.

i -- i don't know where we went wrong, but this talk about money, money, money, man, it's making my head spin. how far is this going to go before we crash? that's all i'm worried about. >> john, how about this number to throw at you. the current national debt in this country is 27 trillion plus and counting. if you break that out per taxpayer in this country it's $220,000 per taxpayer or $84,000 per citizen of this country. >> caller: i know. what are they going do, how are they going to pay it? >> that's john in essex, maryland. this is paula out of deer park, texas. that line for knows who make between $30,000 and $59,000 a year. good morning. >> caller: i would be curious on how they judge the salary for this. in 2019 i made over $100,000,

but in 2020 my salary was reduced by $75,000, so if i file my taxes february 13th the first date then they will say my payroll deduction, that they should base it on the 2020 salaries and not the 2019. >> paula, you think folks like yourself who have had that impact would get their taxes in even earlier to show that impact? >> caller: correct, and i don't foresee my industry turning around any time soon. >> what's your industry, paula? >> caller: travel, plus it's in oil and cass. >> thanks for your call from deer park, texas.

>> bobby from tuscaloosa, alabama on those who make under $30,000 a morning. >> caller: good morning. good morning. >> go ahead, sir. >> caller: i was just listening and i agree with the have a from virginia and the lady from maryland. i -- i'm retired, and now i make under $30,000, but when i was looking at before i was retired, i said, well, when i retire i wanted to have my home paid for and my home is paid for. i'm retired and i get social security and a person, and it will really not impact me, but there's so many people that it will, and i don't have the answer and there is an answer and i think the republicans and the democrats should get the money to, as the one gentleman said, to the people that were impacted by this virus and laid off and have families, but it did not affecting me and my family because my home is paid for, i have an automobile that's paid for. i have good insurance and so i

do have co-pays and all that, but it -- it just didn't impact me and i think if we really need take a look at how much we spend money. the government, there's so much waste and there's so many other things tacked on to this bill. i don't understand the government. i really don't. they should make a bill, if they are going to give the unemployment, deal with those other stuffs and don't add all the pork on to it and run up the debt for our young people to pay down the road. one day it's going to crash. i don't know when and i hope i don't be here, but i just want to say the people got to start planning better. now i planned. and i'm good, but the people that's working, this may be a good lesson for them. you have to start planning for things. you don't know what's going to happen so -- working with virus should have taught us something that we should plan ahead and we

won't be caught like this anymore. thank you, that's all i have to say. bobby in alabama. >> debby saying under $75,000 is fine as a cutoff level. anything more targeted will probably be too slow to get out, and this is lindsaying i think the cap should be lowered for couples married with children and the cap for singles and no kids is good. i'm tired of people saying they didn't really need the money show they put it into home improvements for their house. this is francisco next out of monterrey park. the line for those under $30,000. francisco, good morning. >> caller: good morning. good morning. i'm actually calling regarding the bill. i don't understand how this works. i just went through the case with the east l.a. sheriffs. >> are you talking about bail? >> caller: i'll tell you what. a topic for another time, but we're talking about stimulus checks right now asking folks

who should be eligible for the next round. scott in gilbertville, massachusetts, the line for those who made between $60,000 and $100,000 last year. good morning. >> caller: good morning. the way that i'mit, i believe that individually -- and not as a whole, but individually, if you made between 60 and a hundred thousand dollars, i think that they should get checks if they were impacted, obviously. but i think they should take away some of the other stuff that's in there, the garbage that they're throwing into it and make this more about the actual covid relief. you're getting the shots out to the people and paying the stimulus to the people that need it the most. people making over a hundred thousand dollars don't need a 1,000, 1,200 check. they don't need it. i don't see why we should be

giving it to those types of people when it seems to be rising our debt and hurting our economy. >> so, scott, do this with me this morning. you don't want things in there that aren't about covid relief. so, let's go through president biden's plan. here's some of the things that are in it. tell me if you think this is -- has to do with covid relief. $350 billion for state and local governments. do you think that's something that has to do with covid relief? are you okay with that being included? >> no, i think that should actually be a separate plan that congress should vote on themselves. i think congress themselves need to separate that. >> $15 an hour federal minimum wage? >> that should be pulled out of there as well. again, that's not a covid issue. >> expanded paid sick leave for workers? >> caller: that's not a covid issue either. again, these are a wish list, to my extent, is what i'm thinking.

>> increased tax credits for families with children. >> caller: if it's related to covid. again, we're adding in debt to our country that we don't need to add. >> so i guess -- go ahead. finish your thought. >> caller: a dollar used to mean something. it used to be the strongest money out there in the world. now you go out of the country, it's almost worthless in some countries. you have to go to third world for our dollar mean something again. >> thanks for the call from gilbertville, massachusetts, this morning. good tuesday morning to you, you can start calling in now. it's not every day we can put a price tag on the opening question but we can today. the difference between the biden plan and the so-called gang of ten gop plan when