Stimulus Check Update: Did President Joe Biden Authorize Another Round of Relief Payments?

(Photo : Alex Wong/Getty Images)

President Biden Delivers Update On Situation With Russia And Ukraine
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 18: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to speak to update the situation of the Ukraine-Russia border crisis during an event in Roosevelt Room of the White House on February 18, 2022 in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden gave an update after he held a phone call with Transatlantic leaders to continue diplomatic and deterrence efforts to deescalate the crisis that has been caused by a heavy deployment of Russian troops along the border between the two counties. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A video ostensibly showing President Joe Biden addressing a new round of stimulus checks is a scam.

According to a video on Facebook, President Joe Biden stated that a new batch of stimulus checks will be available to Americans in the coming weeks.

The video shows a split-screen view of Biden giving a speech at the top and signing an executive order at the bottom. Americans expecting another wave of stimulus checks will be disappointed since the video is fake and did not appear on any recent broadcast.

The voice in the video isn't Biden's, but rather an imposter copying his manner. The audio in Biden's video clip, which loops every four seconds, does not match his mouth motions. Biden's speech and executive order videos have nothing to do with stimulus checks.

News About Fourth Stimulus Check, Medicare Are Fake

Per Digital Market News, the speech clip was taken from a video of a speech he gave on climate change on November 1, 2021, at the COP26 gathering in Glasgow, Scotland. In reaction to the worldwide scarcity of electrical chips, Biden issued an executive order on February 24, 2021, as shown in the video.

The voiceover is based on statements made by White House press secretary Jen Psaki on March 11, 2021, on the American Rescue Plan Act. Psaki's words were also repurposed as proof of a new round of stimulus payments, which had been marked False earlier.

The federal government has made three rounds of COVID-19 relief payments to Americans. Several MPs have sought the fourth round of stimulus payments, but it has not been provided. The Facebook post also states that Medicare recipients would receive $2,800, but no evidence could be found to back up this claim.

The website of the Internal Revenue Service only has information on the first three stimulus checks, with no indication that a fourth stimulus check will be sent by the federal government. A fourth stimulus check has yet to be approved by Congress.

According to Jackson Hewitt, a tax preparation agency, the third stimulus payment was really an advance on a tax credit called the Recovery Rebate Credit, as VERIFY previously revealed. The Recovery Rebate Credit, according to the IRS, is for persons who missed the stimulus payment or didn't get the full amount they were entitled to. The IRS offers information about stimulus eligibility on their website.

According to the Facebook post, Medicare beneficiaries will get more than $2,800. A "free $2,880 Medicare flex card" was also advertised in a variety of web adverts in 2021 while VERIFY earlier stated that Medicare does not give a free flex card. While some Medicare Advantage plans include "flex cards," they aren't worth nearly as much as the $2,880 card and aren't free. Medicare Advantage programs frequently require one to pay an extra payment.

Stimulus Checks Related to Opioid-Related Deaths

Researchers in Ohio discovered that the state's record number of opioid-related deaths corresponded with the issuance of COVID-19 stimulus payments, according to a new study.

The Ohio Attorney General's Center for the Future of Forensic Science examined data from the Ohio Department of Health to find that the sharp rise in mortality began shortly after the first stimulus checks were distributed.

According to a news release from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the state had more opioid-related fatalities in the second quarter of 2020 than it has seen since 2010.

Between April 2020 and April 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, a 28 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Since the CDC began recording statistics on the opioid crisis in 1999, this was the highest documented number of opioid-related fatalities.

Fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine overdose deaths have all increased, according to the data. After the first 16 weeks of 2020, researchers revealed that the rate of opioid-related mortality was much higher. A closer look revealed that between weeks 17 and 32 of 2020 there were over 203 fatalities each week. In April 2020, the first stimulus check was sent, Newsweek via MSN reported.

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