Many people still have no idea Obama provided them stimulus payments, because he did it in the form of a payroll tax cut. It was invisible. That was the wrong thing to do. Government help should be visible. People should know government is working for them. Checks makes it clear. https://twitter.com/ddayen/status/1341812939393646592

All tax expenditures function the same way. The home mortgage interest deduction is equivalent to an invisible Section-8 voucher. The result is that housing assistance for the poor is stigmatized, while the rich receiving housing assistance complain that govt only helps the poor.

This is why I think one of the things we should do when we implement UBI is to replace our many 200+ invisible welfare programs with it. Instead of getting $30,000 in invisible housing assistance to help the rich afford bigger mansions, they should get the same as everyone else.

As @AndrewYang liked to say on the campaign trail, UBI reminds the rich that they're Americans too. They aren't getting nothing. They don't only pay taxes and get nothing in return. They get infrastructure, public services and more, and yes, they too get financial assistance.