Biden unveils $1.19 trillion Covid stimulus plan

Washington, Jan. 15: President-elect Joe Biden has announced a $1.9 trillion stimulus package for the Coronavirus-sapped US economy, including direct financial aid to average Americans, support to small businesses and a national vaccination plan.

“During this pandemic, millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a paycheck,” Biden said in an address introducing the American Rescue Plan.

The relief package, announced on Thursday, includes $415 billion focused on combating the Covid-19 pandemic, over $1 trillion in direct aid to individuals and families and $440 billion in assistance to businesses.

It includes $1,400 in additional stimulus cheques to Americans, an extension for key unemployment programmes from midMarch to the end of

● BIDEN HAS picked a former Food and Drug commissioner to lead vaccine science in his drive to put 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his administration’s first 100 days and stem the pandemic.

September and an increase in weekly additional unemployment assistance from $300 to $400 and increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over time.

Biden’s proposal also sets aside $20 billion for a national vaccination programme and $50 billion to scale up Coronavirus testing. During his election campaign, Biden made tackling Covid-19 and the economic hardships it had put on Americans a core pitch to voters.

“It’s not hard to see that we are in the middle of a once-in-several generation economic crisis within a once-inseveral generation public health crisis. A crisis of deep human suffering in plain sight. And there is no time to wait,” Biden, who is set to be sworn in as the 46th President of the US on January 20, said in his address from his hometown, Wilmington in Delaware.

Biden, a Democrat, described the outgoing Trump administration’s vaccine rollout as a “dismal failure.” —