Basic income plans from congressional candidates Mike Broihier and Suraj Patel

Broihier and Patel are running in Democratic primaries today

Mike Broihier (left) and Suraj Patel (right)

Of the Democrats in six states voting in primaries or primary run-offs today, some will see basic-income-friendly candidates on their ballot. Mike Broihier is one of ten candidates running for the chance to battle Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, while Suraj Patel is one of three challengers to incumbent Carolyn Maloney in New York’s 12th congressional district (a blue district in New York City).

Broihier is a farmer and former Marine who’s earned the endorsement of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang by making UBI the centerpiece of his economic plan. Patel is an attorney and business ethics lecturer who has called for a child allowance and emergency UBI throughout the Covid-19 economic crisis. Here’s more on their basic income plans.

Both support emergency UBI

Broihier and Patel join many prominent economists in calling for emergency relief payments for each person, for each month of the crisis. By avoiding means-testing, these payments could be delivered more quickly and without excluding people whose income has changed in the past couple of years (the duration the means-tested Recovery…