GOP's $600 stimulus check a 'joke' on Americans; Pelosi faces netizens' wrath [see reactions]

Thanks to the $900 billion economic relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to on December 20, Americans are set to receive a second round of direct aid payments. How long will that stimulus package resulting in $600 per person, last each citizen, is a different story and the one that social media users couldn't wait to answer, each with a different tune. But one hashtag, #LetThemEatCake. Was this America's truly, the proverbial let-them-eat-cake moment?

The stimulus package, in a nutshell

The much-needed second round of stimulus checks will include $600 per person, which is half of the $1,200 per person directed toward most adults in the spring this year. But the latest coronavirus relief package is more inclusive than the CARES Act, which failed to include households with mixed status.

Stimulus checks, who'll get it this time?

It's exactly half of the amount paid earlier in the year through the CARES Act. Single persons earnings up to $75,000 will receive $600, while married couples earning up to $150,000 will receive $1200. It's widely believed that the checks will be phased in the same manner as the first round of stimulus checks. The amount provided for dependent children is also $600, which is up from $500 which was provided under the CARES Act. The amount of $600 will be directed towards each, "child dependent" and not towards a child that is claimed as a dependent.

If you are unemployed, that's a $300 extra. Jobless workers will receive $300 on top of and apart from their regular state unemployment payments through March 14, 2021.

How soon will the checks arrive?

Now we are talking. Checks are expected to land in the Americans' account as early as starting next week. "The good news is this is a very, very fast way of getting money into the economy. Let me emphasize: people are going to see this money at the beginning next week," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a publication.

While Mnuchin may sound hopeful of the efficacy of the stimulus package and its spiralling effect on the economy and employment, the netizens were not so kind with the amount. Some doubted if they could get past half the month's rent on the amount.

Immigrants, green cardholders

The first round of stimulus only went to American citizens or those with a Green Card, which resulted in several lawsuits. As legal immigrants without a Green Card were excluded and so were the American citizens married to immigrants without a Green Card; even their children were not a part of the stimulus package.

But the latest stimulus package, "successfully pushed for provision, which is retroactive to the CARES Act, to expand these direct payments to mixed-status households, importantly providing immigrant families across the country with access to this financial relief," according to the summary.

Pelosi adds insult to injury?

Unwittingly, she may have done that already. "I would like them to have been bigger, but they are significant,' said the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in context of $600 per person relief package. The social media would rather she admitted $600 to being what they are ---insignificant. Did she really say that, questioned many before adding because she truly can't be thinking so?