PBS高端访谈:看美国人如何花掉政府发放的救助金

JUDY WOODRUFF: Stimulus¹ money from the latest COVID relief bill is arriving in bank accounts all over the country. Here's a look at how some people plan to spend that money and what they say about the president's legislation.

LEANDREW BELL, Louisiana: My name is Leandrew Bell. I am a 59-year-old unemployed² Black male. I live in Baton³ Rouge⁴, Louisiana.

JASON WELLMAN, Pennsylvania: My name is Jason Wellman. I'm the president of FilterShine Northeast out of Denver, Pennsylvania. We're a small business for restaurants. We do fire prevention-related services.

NOVA HARPER, Georgia: I'm Nova Harper. I'm from Georgia. I live in Kingsland, near the Florida line. I'm a custodian⁵ in an elementary school. I had to move once the pandemic hit. The quarantine started. And I had a nervous breakdown⁶. I was running out of money and I'm currently living with family, sleeping on a couch, and working at an elementary school making $900-and-some-change a month, trying to save up enough to get my own apartment. I have not received my stimulus check. I will be receiving one, but I have not gotten it yet. I am going to put it in savings⁷ until I have more from my tax returns and others that I -- other money that I put away from my paycheck until I can afford to move.

NAILAH HENDRICKSON, Arizona: My name is Nailah Hendrickson. I live in Arizona. And I'm a project specialist for a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. I was able to pay off or pay down a lot of my son's hospital bills from his self-harm and his attempted suicide during COVID. He is 16 and was out of school due to COVID. And he had actually three attempts at committing suicide, and had to be hospitalized and put into a mental hospital. In those three attempts, we have over $10,000 worth of bills, and that's with insurance.

MIMI PERREAULT, North Carolina: My name is Dr. Mimi Perreault. And I'm a journalism⁸ professor in Tennessee at East Tennessee State University. And I live in Boone, North Carolina. I have four children. The oldest is 9 and the youngest is 2. So, that actually made doing my job very challenging. I think, financially, what's really helped me with the pandemic actually is the student loan payments being deferred⁹, because we were really having to make some decisions about how much child care we were able to use and pay on our student loans from graduate school.

JASON WELLMAN: My personal opinion of this entire relief bill is, there's a lot of wasted money. Our biggest struggle right now in what we're trying to work through is employees, hiring new employees, if you will. There's just -- our labor¹⁰ force is very, very slim right now. They're now basically being incentivized not to look for employment, to stay at home. On top of their normal unemployment, they're also getting a federal unemployment of an additional $300 a week now until September. It's time to incentivize workers to get back to work. The only way that we're going to recover as a country is, we have got to get our employees back out there doing work and earning the money the right way. We can't incentivize them to stay at home.

LEANDREW BELL: I was afraid to get out and look for employment because of COVID, not knowing -- because I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol¹¹, I am at risk. So I didn't want to risk to get a job. It's going to be a big help, but it's not enough. Home repairs. I'm also going to catch my bills up, and probably buy myself a pair of shoes. So, it could have been more, but I'm grateful that it is the amount that it is.

JUDY WOODRUFF: No question that a number of Americans are hurting right now. And, as you hear, reactions to President Biden's COVID relief bill vary from family to family and from person to person.

朱迪·伍德乐夫：最新一笔来自新冠救助法案的刺激资金已经到达全国各地的银行账户，让我们来看看一些人打算如何花这笔钱，以及他们对总统的立法有什么看法。

利安得·贝尔，路易斯安那州：我叫利安得·贝尔，我是一个59岁没有工作的黑人男性，我住在路易斯安那州的巴吞鲁日。

杰森·韦尔曼，宾西法尼亚：我叫杰森·韦尔曼，是宾夕法尼亚州丹佛市FilterShine Northeast的董事长，我们是一家为餐馆提供服务的小企业，做防火相关的服务。

诺瓦·哈珀，乔治亚州：我叫诺瓦·哈珀，来自乔治亚州。我住在金斯兰，离佛罗里达线很近。我是一所小学的管理员。新冠一爆发我就被迫搬了家，然后开始了隔离，期间精神都崩溃了。我的钱都快用光了，现在我和家人住在一起，睡在沙发上，在一所小学打工，每个月能挣900多美元，努力攒钱给自己买套公寓。我还没有收到我的刺激资金。我会收到的，只不过现在还没收到。我会把这笔钱存起来，另外我从纳税申报单也拿到了一些钱，工资里也存了一些钱，我会一直存钱直到我有能力搬家。

娜莉亚·亨德里克森，亚利桑那州：我叫娜莉亚·亨德里克森，住在亚利桑那。我是一家财富500强制造业公司的项目专家。我有能力支付或者偿还我儿子在新冠期间自残和自杀未遂的很多医院账单。他今年16岁，因为新冠而辍学。他其实有过3次自杀倾向，最后不得不送进精神病院。3次自杀令我们拿到超过一万美元的账单，里面包括保险。

米米·佩罗，北卡罗来纳州：我叫米米·佩罗，是田纳西州东田纳西州立大学的新闻学教授。我住在北卡罗来纳州的布恩，有四个孩子。最大的9岁，最小的2岁，所以这让我的工作变得非常有挑战性。我觉得，在经济上，真正帮助我应对新冠的是学生贷款可以延期支付，因为关于我们能够照顾多少孩子，以及能够偿还多少我们从研究生院借的学生贷款，我们真的必须做出一些决定。

杰森·韦尔曼：我个人对整个救济法案的看法是，有很多钱被浪费了。我们现在最大的困难是我们正在努力解决的问题是员工，招聘新员工。我们的劳动力现在非常非常少。他们现在被鼓励不去找工作，要待在家里。除了正常的失业之外，在9月之前他们可以一直拿到联邦政府每周额外发放的300美元失业补贴。现在是激励工人重返工作岗位的时候了。作为一个国家，我们要复苏的唯一途径是，我们必须让我们的雇员回来工作，以正确的方式挣钱，我们不能鼓励他们待在家里。

利安得·贝尔：因为新冠肺炎，我不敢出去找工作，不知道……因为我有高血压和高胆固醇，有感染风险。所以我不想冒险去找工作。（刺激资金）会有很大帮助，但还不够。我还要修房子，还要把账单都结清，可能还得给自己买双鞋。所以，我觉得刺激资金还能再多给些，不过现在这个数量我也很感激了。

朱迪·伍德乐夫：毫无疑问，很多美国人现在正在遭受苦难。正如你们所听到的，大家对拜登总统的新冠救助法案的反应因家庭和个人而异。

1 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

2 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

3 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

4 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

5 custodian   

n.保管人，监护人；公共建筑看守

参考例句：

• Benitez believes his custodian is among the top five in world football.贝尼特斯坚信他的门将是当今足坛最出色的五人之一。
• When his father died his uncle became his legal custodian.他父亲死后，他叔叔成了他的法定监护人。

6 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

7 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

8 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

9 deferred   

adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从

参考例句：

• The department deferred the decision for six months. 这个部门推迟了六个月才作决定。
• a tax-deferred savings plan 延税储蓄计划

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。