Biden touts $1.9T plan
Provisions set to deliver aid to communities, families and businesses
President-elect unveils economic, health care details.
President-elect Joe Biden laid out a $1.9 trillion emergency relief plan Thursday night that will serve as an early test of his ability to steer the nation out of pandemic disaster and a rapidly deteriorating economy.
The package is designed to take aim at the twin crises Biden will confront upon taking office Jan. 20, with a series of provisions delivering direct aid to American families, businesses, and communities, and a major focus on coronavirus testing and vaccine production and delivery as the pandemic surge continues.
Biden is aiming to get GOP support for the measure, although at nearly $2 trillion the price tag is likely to be too high for many Republicans. But after campaigning as a bipartisan dealmaker, Biden wants to at least give Republicans the opportunity to get behind his first legislative effort as president.
“I’m convinced we are ready to get this done,” Biden said in an evening speech in Wilmington, Del. “The very health of our nation is at stake.”
The package is titled the “American Rescue Plan.” Biden described it as a package of emergency measures to meet the nation’s immediate economic and health care needs, to be followed in February by a broader relief plan he will unveil in his first appearance before a joint meeting of Congress.
Thursday’s proposal comes at a critical time for the nation. More than 4,200 people in the United States died of the coronavirus on Tuesday, a new dailyrecord high. The economic recovery appears to be backsliding, with jobless claims spiking to a new high since August.
Biden’s proposal is divided into three major areas: $400 billion for provisions to fight the coronavirus with more vaccines and testing, while reopening schools; more than $1 trillion in direct relief to families, including through stimulus payments and increased unemployment insurance benefits; and $440 billion for aid to communities and businesses, including $350 billion in emergency funding to state, local and tribal governments.
The proposal will aim to make good on Biden’s plan for a universal vaccination program, devoting $20 billion to that goal, as well as $50 billion for a “massive expansion” of testing and $130 billion to help schools reopen safely. Among the many goals laid out in the proposal, Biden hopes to deliver 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days, and reopen a majority of K-12 public schools in that same time frame.
“I know what I just described will not come cheaply,” Biden said Thursday night. “But failure to do so will cost us dearly.”
The legislation includes a number of priorities sought by top congressional Democrats, from increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour to adding billions in funding for child care.
Biden called for increasing federal unemployment benefits from $300 per week to $400 per week for millions of jobless Americans. The benefits would be extended through September, and he will also seek to link the level of unemployment benefits to general economic factors.
As expected, Biden’s proposal would also increase to $2,000 per person the stimulus payments approved by Congress in December, which had been $600 per person. His plan would also expand eligibility for the stimulus payments to families where one parent is an immigrant, as well as to adult children claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns. Both categories were excluded in the last relief packages due to GOP opposition.
A major expansion of tax credits is also included in Biden’s proposal, both for children and lower-income workers. Biden’s plan would expand a tax credit for children to $3,600 a year per child under six years of age, as well as $3,000 a year for children under 17. It would also extend eligibility for the credit to millions of very poor families. It would dramatically boost the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax benefit for workers, from $530 to $1,500.
Biden’s plan also contains new initiatives aimed at buoying the ailing U.S. economy, such as a combined 14 weeks of paid sick and family medical leave for millions of workers. It would provide grants to more than 1 million small businesses, and approve some $35 billion toward making low-interest loans available, particularly for clean energy investments.