the stimulus checks were a bad idea. everyone just spent the money right away
poor people spent it on overdue bills, repairs, food, and other necessities, stimulating the economy
middle class people treated themselves, stimulating the economy
rich people wouldve thrown it into savings, not stimulating the economy
if the stimulus checks hadnt been revoked, we likely wouldnt be having mass layoffs now, since money would still be churning in from the lower and middle class. instead, we're back to the upper class hoarding money, and none of the other classes being able to spend anything to keep the economy afloat
cash movement is how you get a healthy economy. when people hoard or dont have anything to spend, the economy collapses
For the record, I support stimulus checks and a generous UBI but there is a slight problem with your analysis.
Strictly speaking, paying down debt doesn't stimulate the economy. That money was stimulation when initially spent, not when you pay for it later. There are secondary effects (e.g., you're more likely to take on new debt and defaulting on debt can do weird stuff). But that's generally why macro-economists aren't fans of it. Much like funding "shovel ready" infrastructure projects, it's good PR even if it's ineffective.
The big counter argument is that velocity of capital is so much greater among poor people that it doesn't matter if 80% of it is "wasted" paying down debt. The bottom two quintiles in the US spend any money they get near instantly and they spend it on stuff where a high proportion of costs are on labor to other people in the bottom two quintiles who then repeat the cycle until rich assholes have skimmed it all away.
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