Are recurring monthly checks a good idea? Yes.

 My comment at WaPo about the push for recurring checks

With the cost of poverty annually over 2 trillion (1 trillion for child poverty alone), this is how you "Pay for it".

The question, as Modern Monetary theorists suggest, is not how will you pay for it, but will it achieve the goals, in terms of full employment, reducing the massive costs of poverty, both financial and human, and help close the demand gap. 

Universal basic income pilot projects show a wide range of benefits, and virtually no drawbacks; aside from how you pay for it.  But if we get better health outcomes, less crime, less imprisonment, better schools b/c students are fed, secure and ready to learn, the long term costs of the UBI pay for itself.  BUT it is long term; it is an investment in the future.

Others disagree and would prefer more a more targeted approach, like increasing the the minimum wage and providing a new deal style federal jobs guarantee.  I personally like universal benefits and targeted taxation, and think the American people do as well.

Regardless of the path to a more just and equitable future, the real question is can we deficit spend now, to save later.  The essential question is one of inflation, which does not appear to be a problem for the US, nor for Japan nor China whose dent to GDP ration is 3 times what ours is.

What I do know is that 44% of workers earning low wages (approx 18k year), and the massive inequality we have created since Reagan, is the single most pressing problem we face.  Until we face it, we won't make progress on climate change, racial equity, war, hunger and the plethora of other problems we face.