Joe Biden unveiled his proposal for a new, $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill on Thursday night, and while people had many good things to say about the contents of the package, one element of it stood out. Can you guess which one?

The Associated Press @AP

President-elect Joe Biden is unveiling a $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan to speed vaccine rollout, steady the economy and reopen schools. The plan includes $1,400 checks for individuals, on top of $600 provided in the last COVID-19 bill. Biden unveils $1.9T plan to stem COVID-19 and steady economyWILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan Thursday to end “a crisis of deep human suffering” by speeding up vaccines and pumping out financial help to those struggling with the pandemic’s prolonged economic fallout...apne.ws

January 14th 2021

878 Retweets3,689 Likes

Your four-year-old daughter probably just walked into the room and went, "That's funny. I thought people were getting $2,000 checks. Isn't that what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Senate candidates in Georgia and pretty much the entire Democratic Party kept hammering over the past couple of weeks? That if Democrats were elected, people would be getting $2,000 checks in the mail? Isn't $1,400 different than $2,000?"

She's right. $2,000 checks is what the Democratic Party has been promising for weeks now, including in just the past couple of days.

Joe Biden @JoeBiden

$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. We need $2,000 stimulus checks.

January 11th 2021

109,729 Retweets987,311 Likes

Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris

Food banks are strained trying to feed people worried about where they'll get their next meal. Essential workers continue to risk their own health and their families for us all. Small business owners from restaurants to barber shops are hurting. We need $2,000 stimulus checks.

January 13th 2021

8,172 Retweets68,464 Likes

Reverend Raphael Warnock @ReverendWarnock

.@KLoeffler isn't in D.C. fighting for a $2,000 relief check. She's on the campaign trail, trying desperately to save her own job. She’s fighting for herself. I’ll fight for you.

January 1st 2021

2,862 Retweets9,893 Likes

I like that last one especially, because it literally has a mockup of a check that says $2000 on it, and it comes from Raphael Warnock, whose push for $2000 checks helped galvanize his successful campaign to defeat Kelly Loeffler in Georgia.

Seems pretty straightforward, all things considered. Well, here come the Democrats.

Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris

“We will finish the job of getting a total of $2,000 in cash relief to people who need it the most. The $600 already appropriated is simply not enough.” —Your next president, @JoeBiden

January 15th 2021

13,717 Retweets148,075 Likes

Where's that four-year-old daughter? She's probably noticing that the words "a total" have suddenly appeared in front of the magical $2,000 number. That's odd, she might be thinking. Nobody was talking about "a total" of $2,000 checks, they were talking about a new $2,000 check, straight up!

Wow, your kid is so smart. This is true.

jordan @JordanUhl

"a total of $2,000" vs $2,000 checks

January 15th 2021

188 Retweets1,104 Likes

Some people are looking at one number that says 2,000, and another number that says 1,400, and making the obvious demand.

Cori Bush @CoriBush

$1,400 ≠ $2,000

January 15th 2021

14,277 Retweets158,032 Likes

Jeff Stein @JStein_WaPo

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) says Dems should pass $2K on top of the $600 from December, rather than add $1,400 to get $600 to $2K. "$2,000 means $2,000. $2,000 does not mean $1,400,″ @AOC tells us Biden unveils $1.9 trillion economic and health-care relief packagePresident-elect Joe Biden is preparing to unveil an emergency relief plan Thursday evening to combat the coronavirus and deliver direct aid to American families, with a major focus on boosting vaccine production and delivery as the pandemic continues its rampage.washingtonpost.com

January 14th 2021

6,625 Retweets44,407 Likes

Pramila Jayapal @PramilaJayapal

We have to deliver $2,000 survival checks to the American people. Not anything less.

January 14th 2021

2,315 Retweets33,527 Likes

Other people are scoffing at this, asserting that the overall relief bill contains many good items—such as the raising of the minimum wage to $15—and that even Bernie Sanders is on board, and that lefty critics of the bill are just finding something ridiculous to be mad about.

I'm not really here to quibble with the notion that there are good things in this bill. Of course there are good things in this bill! Of course it's a big deal that the minimum wage could be raised to $15, though that is still not enough. Of course $1,400 checks are better than $600 checks.

But critics are unhappy about the checks because, even though they are still not good enough, and shouldn't be means-tested, and should be monthly, they were a simple, straightforward piece of public policy that entrenched the idea that giving people some direct money in their pockets is a good thing. They're unhappy because Democrats made a straightforward promise to voters and are clearly now trying to tell them that the fine print said something else. They're unhappy because we have the money to give people a $600 check AND a $2,000 check AND do all of the other things in this bill and a whole lot more besides, so why the hell should people not demand that? They're unhappy because the Joe Biden administration is running around saying it wants to cut deals with Republicans on this legislation, and is now playing games on the most high-profile provision in the package, and is getting too cute with its math instead of pushing for what it pledged to voters over and over again in the last couple weeks, and that is concerning.

It's true that Squad members like AOC and Rashida Tlaib were, at one point, pushing for the kind of formulation Biden is now sticking to. But that was when the last relief bill was still being wrangled over, and no money had been sent out to people. It was before the entire Democratic Party made "$2,000 checks" a core feature of its offering to voters, and before its candidates in Georgia started putting out ads with $2,000 checks on them. The circumstances changed, and now the demand has changed.

It's also true that Bernie Sanders is not god, and can play ball on this if he likes, and that doesn't change the fact that $2,000 checks were what was promised and what should be delivered.

To quote Discourse Blog many times over: JUST. GIVE. PEOPLE. THE. MONEY.