Originally posted on May 28, 2020

I received my stimulus check a couple of days ago. It was part of the $2 Trillion CARES act. Trump, never wasting a chance to put his name out there, included it on a check. Perhaps he wants anyone receiving one to think he was the donor. Here’s a picture:

Trump says he didn’t ask to have his name on the check. He didn’t have to. The Russians have a word: prisposoblenets—that means “a person skilled in the act of compromise and adaptation, who intuitively understands what is expected of him and adjusts his beliefs and conduct accordingly.” Steven Mnuchin is that man. Compliments to Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic, in an article that everyone ought to read.

Update – June 8, 2020. As if having Trump’s name on the check wasn’t bad enough, I just received a letter from the White House that makes sure I know about the payment, again with his name on it. Here’s a scan of that letter.

Curious, I broke down where different portions of that $2T went. Here’s most of it, all in $Billions.

• Large Corps – 500
• Health Care – 127
• Small Business – 350
• Local Govts – 150
• Agriculture Bailout – 20 (continued from earlier)
• Unemployment – 250
• Stimulus Checks – 300

That totals up to a little over $1.7T, with the rest being changes to tax rules and dates. With that much money going out, there’s bound to be some of it going astray. Congress placed some oversight into the appropriation, but Trump claimed that those provisions were unconstitutional during the signing ceremony. Along with several firings of potential commission members, it is clear he doesn’t want anybody looking to closely over his shoulder. And predictably, there have been, shall we say, misallocations, and it appears that Trump is doing everything he can to make sure we never know their extent.