DEM $PREE-FOR-ALL
Biden unveils $1.9T ‘rescue’
President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled a $1.9 trillion economic-recovery plan that he’ll pitch to Congress as one of his first acts as chief executive.
The bailout, called the American Rescue Plan, proposes $1,400 checks for most Americans, an extension of the eviction and foreclosure moratorium until September and a national COVID-19 vaccination program.
“The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight. There’s no time to waste. We have to act and we have to act now,” Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Del., Thursday evening.
But congressional Republicans who opposed a similar $2.2 trillion bailout pushed by House Democrats in October are likely to raise objections to Biden’s package, too.
It would follow a $900 billion bailout Congress passed last month that included a $300 weekly unemployment supplement, $284.4 billion in forgivable smallbusiness Paycheck Protection Program loans and $600 stimulus checks for most Americans.
If Biden’s package is to become law, it would likely require compromise amid concerns over ballooning national debt and payouts to those who don’t need them.
The Biden team, which has called the $600 stimulus checks a “down payment,” says the package’s proposed $1,400 direct payments to eligible Americans would take total relief payouts to $2,000.
But at least one Democrat has opposed such payments. Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative West Virginia Democrat who is expected to be a key swing vote, has said he prefers targeted payouts.
Biden has also earmarked $20 billion for a national vaccine program, including community vaccination centers and mobile vaccination units. All people in the US, regardless of immigration status, would receive the jab for free.
The package also promotes $130 billion to help schools safely reopen by reducing class sizes, improving ventilation and hiring more janitors.