Is the $12,000 stimulus check real?

Everyone loves a good stimulus check. After all, it’s basically free money from the government (well, it isn’t, but it feels like it). Back in 2020, the IRS paid out three rounds of yummy stimmies, which were billed as “economic impact payment” checks, intended to help those whose income had been cut or stopped entirely by the pandemic.

Those payments consisted of $1,200 per income tax filer in March 2020, $600 per income per filer in December 2020, and £1,400 per income tax filer in March 2021 (with additional payments per dependents under 17).

But could a new stimulus check be coming that will leave all those in its shadow with a whopping $12,000 per tax filer! Is it real?

Well, you know what they say when something sounds too good to be true…

Gimmie my stimmie?

Despite being widely reported by some less than reputable looking sites, I can’t find any official announcement that a new stimulus check is being considered, let alone one for such a massive amount. Indeed, the sites reporting it appear to be AI-generated slop recycling each other’s words, likely completely autogenerated based on search queries.

In addition, a $12,000 stimulus check wouldn’t make much economic sense right now. The U.S. inflation rate was 3.4% in April, and is part of a persistently high inflation rate that’s driving up prices across the board. Economists generally agree that stimulus payments drive inflation – and a $12,000 one right now would almost certainly result in much higher inflation.

In addition, giving out a stimulus check of such magnitude in an election year would see Republicans justifiably accuse the Democrats of bribing the electorate, as well as allowing them to argue that public spending is out of control.

So, sorry folks, but it looks like we can chalk this one up to very wishful thinking.