The payments and the politics
The checks and direct deposits are landing. Now comes the politics of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed last week by President Biden. Both parties see an opportunity, with eyes fixed on the 2022 midterms. The fact that the package went through the House and Senate without a single Republican vote has both advantages and disadvantages for Democrats. Polls have shown strong popular support for the bill — particularly the $1,400 stimulus payments — but sustaining those numbers will depend greatly on whether it produces the promised boost to an economy that has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. If it does, the Republicans who mocked the spending infusion as too extravagant and ill targeted will have some explaining to do.
If the economy continues to lag and unemployment remains high, then the White House and congressional Democrats will be on the defensive for pushing through a plan without the type of bipartisan cooperation that candidate Biden had pledged to restore in the nation’s capital.
The partisan talking points already were on full display on the Sunday news shows. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DSan Francisco, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” said she “totally disagrees” with the characterization of the bill as lacking bipartisanship.
“The fact is that it’s strongly bipartisan across the country — it’s only in the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi said, adding, regarding Republicans: “You can be sure that all of their states and communities will be benefiting from this, and they won’t be complaining about it back home.”
Sen. John Barrasso, RWyo., countered the focus should have been on “helping get the disease behind us” instead of what he called “a Nancy Pelosi payoff to the liberal left.” He suggested that Biden inherited a recovering economy.
“To call this COVID relief is really false advertising,” Barrasso said. “Only 9% of the money goes to actually defeating the virus. Only 1% of the money goes for vaccines.”
The White House is wasting no time in going on the offensive to punctuate the value of the package on many levels. State, local and tribal governments that had been facing deep deficits — San Francisco and Oakland, to name two — will get relief from the $350 billion allocated to them. Single people with adjusted gross incomes of $75,000 or less and married couples at $150,000 or below will receive the direct payments. The package has a particular emphasis on families, with expansion of the child tax credit and block grants for child care and nutrition programs among the elements.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will take to the road this week to promote positive messages about the act, an unusual move for a bill already passed and signed.
Without question, the infusion of federal cash of this magnitude carries an element of risk. One is the possibility that inflation may result, a concern raised not only by Republicans but by some Democratic economists such as Lawrence Summers, Treasury secretary in the Obama administration. Another is the likelihood that examples of wasteful spending will be exposed and highlighted by Republicans.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of American politics that the two major parties could not work together on addressing this economic and health crisis.
But the GOP showed no inclination to offer a plausible alternative, and left it to Democrats to deliver on a package that will determine the course of the economy and politics in the next couple of years.