President Joe Biden calls on Congress to “act now” on the Administration’s $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief package.
Biden laid out the “American Rescue Plan” six days before he was inaugurated. It includes $400 billion to fight the pandemic, including funds to accelerate vaccinations and to reopen most schools safely within 100 days.
There is $350 billion to help state and local governments facing budget crises and overstretched health systems. Individuals will receive $1,400 one-off direct payments, adding to the $600 payment authorized by a $900 billion interim package adopted in late December. Unemployment benefits will be expanded, federally mandated paid leave will be provided for workers, and child care costs will be subsidized.
“We have to act now,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “There is an overwhelming consensus among economists … that this is a unique moment and the cost of inaction is high.”
He said that he want passage of “Covid relief with support from Republicans, if we can get it”. However, he would move even without the backing of GOP legislators: “[This] has to pass with no ifs, ands or buts.”
The US death toll reached 436,799 on Friday, with in 24 hours. Confirmed cases are 25,932,971, a rise of
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Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that the chamber, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, will begin work on the legislation next week.
Democrats needs 60 votes to prevent a filibuster which would block the legislation. They are preparing “reconciliation”, used by Republicans for their December 2017 tax cuts and their attempt to repeal ObamaCare, which allows the Senate to end the blockade and approve the package with a simple majority.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi forecast on Thursday that both chambers of Congress will be ready with reconciliation by the end of next week.
Biden said Friday, “There is no time for any delays. We could end up with 4 million fewer jobs this year….It could take a year longer to return to full employment if we don’t act and don’t act now.“
The US unemployment rate was 6.7% in December 2020, compared to 3.5% in February. The economy lost 140,000 jobs in December. About 900,000 Americans filed for unemployment in Donald Trump’s last week in office.
“Doing Something Big”
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with their top economic officials on Friday, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council; and Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Yellen said before the meeting:
The price of doing nothing is much higher than the price of doing something and doing something big. We need to act now. The benefits of acting now and acting big will far outweigh the costs in the long run.
White House officials declared urgency for passage of the American Rescue Plan before some emergency benefits expire in March.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that polling shows 74% of Americans support the proposal, and 71% said it was important for Republicans to find ways to work with Biden.
Brookings Institution researchers estimate that the relief package would boost economic activity by 4% this year and 2% in 2022. The International Monetary Fund forecasts a 5% increase over three years, including a 1.25% increase in output this year.
” “If they remain in Afghanistan after this [the agreed deadline] we will also kill them even if somebody reward us or do not reward us. We take our reward from God. We fight the invaders without a reward, without any bounty,” Stanikzai warned.”
For all the feigned moral outrage about laughable claims of “Russian bounties” by Democratic politicians and their media sycophants last year, the Biden administration would do well to at least pretend that US soldiers’ (and Afghan) lives matter to them by adhering to the agreed-upon withdrawal timeline. The alternative is letting Afghans bleed for the next decade just to postpone the inevitable reckoning for their quislings.