Andrew Yang Is Worried About the Future Without a Stimulus Bill: WATCH

Savas Abadsidis November 12, 2020

Andrew Yang appeared on The Breakfast Club Thursday morning and spoke to Charlamagne tha God about the recount in Georgia, his work on the Biden campaign, his friendship with comedian Dave Chappelle, and his biggest fear following Congress’ failure to pass a stimulus bill, “I’m worried our government doesn’t work anymore.”

Yang said his friendship with Chappelle emerged on the campaign trail after Chappelle backed him during the primaries and their friendship grew organically from that experience.

Yang spoke about going to Georgia to help oversee the candidates’ campaigns going into the runoffs in January.

Want to help win Georgia and demote Mitch McConnell? Go to https://t.co/WMwIrvc8sb to support 16 orgs that are activating voters in their communities! pic.twitter.com/pEgugHhMjE
— Andrew Yang????⬆️???????? (@AndrewYang) November 12, 2020

Yang warned that as we head into December, shutdowns will lead to layoffs as large or larger than the ones that went to effect in the spring, and a stimulus bill is a necessity not an entitlement. “One restaurant closure in a small town is a sign of decline, they need the money now.”

Yang says that Emergency Money for the People Act needs to be implemented yesterday. The Bill: “directs the Department of the Treasury to make monthly payments during a specified 12-month period to certain citizens and noncitizens of the United States and their dependent children. The amount of such payments shall be $2,000 each month ($4,000 for married couples filing joint returns) and additional amounts for their dependent children. The monthly amount shall be phased out for individuals whose adjusted gross income exceeds $130,000 ($260,000 for joint return filers). The payments must begin within 14 days of the enactment of this bill.”

The bill allows such monthly payments for individuals who are not U.S. citizens or residents, but have been physically present in the United States continuously since January 27, 2020 (the effective date of the public health emergency resulting from the COVID-19 [i.e. coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic), and continue to be physically present in the United States throughout the duration of the payment period.

“You should know,” Yang told Charlamagne, “the $1200 checks people got were only 6% of the 2.2 trillion Cares Act. Where did the rest of it go?”

Yang is a proponent for the United States moving to a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that would pay everyone a minimum of $2,000 month to correct for reparations and myriad other structural and institutional biases that allows for vast wealth discrepancies.

Yang wants the UBI to pass under the moniker of The Freedom Dividend, since the term curried favor with conservatives that suggest it would pass. Yang notes that Fox News and the GOP are good at manipulating language by naming things positively and Democrats “not so much.”

Watch the interview below.