Austerity / fiscal responsibility / balancing the budget are all manifestations of what Lakoff calls the stern father model. The proposed $1000 (?) payouts are not designed to help people (that’s why the proposal doesn’t favor those who need money the most) but to protect business (i.e. the resource in which most of congress and the wealthy have tied up a substantial amount of their capital) by encouraging spending.

Most elected officials aren’t concerned with ordinary people not being able to pay their rent; they’re worried about Dow Jones and the S & P. A panic would set off even further sell-offs (and politicians are now on notice that if they try to profit from trading based on inside information, they may be found out).

But most of all, the payments (with all of their complexities and exceptions and indecipherable formulas) are meant to buy the loyalty of voters (including Pelosi’s) by simulating the smiling face of the nourishing mother.