[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress set to approve landmark $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, putting President Joe Biden on the verge of an early triumph that pushes priorities forward democratic and shows the unity his party will need to forge future victories.
The House was due to give congressional final approval on Wednesday to the package, which aims to fulfill campaign pledges from Democrats to defeat the pandemic and revive the weakened economy. Republicans in the House and Senate unanimously opposed the package as bloated, stuffed with liberal policies and heedless of signs that the double crisis is abating.
“This is remarkable, historic and transformative legislation that goes a long way in crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis,” House of Commons Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California said Tuesday.
For Biden and the Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they painted their core beliefs – that government programs can be a boon, not a bane, for millions of people and that spending huge sums on money. such efforts can be a cure, not a curse. The measure follows Democrats’ priorities so closely that many rank it among the best achievements of their careers, and despite their low majorities in Congress, there has never been any real suspense about its fate.
They have also been empowered by three dynamics: their unfettered control of the White House and Congress, polls showing strong support for Biden’s approach, and a time when most voters care little that the national debt climbs to stratospheric $ 22 trillion. Neither party seems very concerned about the skyrocketing red ink, except when the other uses it to fund their priorities, be it democratic spending or cuts. GOP tax.
A dominant feature of the bill are the initiatives that make it one of the most important federal efforts in years to help low and middle income families. Expanded tax credits in the coming year for children are included, child care and family leave as well as tenant expenses, food programs and utility bills.
Measurement provides up to $ 1,400 in direct payments to most Americans, extended emergency unemployment benefits, and hundreds of billions of dollars for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, schools, state and local governments, and industries struggling, from airlines to concert halls. There are subsidies for farmers of color and pension systems, and subsidies for consumers who buy health insurance. and states are expanding Medicaid coverage for low-income people.
Its very expansive character is one of the main topics of discussion for the GOP.
“It’s not focused on COVID relief. It’s focused on promoting more of the far left agenda, ”said House 2 GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found last week that 70% of Americans support Biden’s response to the virus, including 44% of Republicans.
Yet the Bill’s track has underscored the challenges Democrats face as they seek to build a legislative record. to persuade voters to keep them at the helm of Congress in next year’s election.
Democrats control the 50-50 split only because Vice President Kamala Harris gives them the winning vote on tied calls. They only have a 10-vote advantage in the House.
That’s almost no wiggle room for a party that ranges from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin on the Conservative side to progressives like Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative from New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Progressives had to swallow big concessions in the bill to solidify moderate support. The most painful thing has been to reduce the federal minimum wage increase approved by the House to $ 15 an hour by 2025.
The moderates forced a tightening of eligibility for stimulus checks of $ 1,400, now completely eliminated for people earning $ 80,000 and couples earning $ 160,000. The House’s initial extension of weekly emergency payments of $ 400, paid in addition to state benefits, was reduced to $ 300 by the Senate and will now stop in early September.
Manchin was one of the main resistance fighters and in the midst of the talks which resulted in all these initiatives being held back. The Senate approved the bill on Saturday in a 50-49 party line vote.
Dropping the minimum wage increase was “infuriating,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Chair of the 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus. But she called the comprehensive bill “incredibly bold,” adding: “It touches all of our progressive priorities – putting money in people’s pockets, gun shots, UI, child care, schools. ”
The Independent Center for Fiscal Policy said the Senate bill would grant nearly 70% of this year’s tax breaks to households earning $ 91,000 or less. In contrast, the Trump-era GOP tax bill gave nearly half of its 2018 cuts to the richest 5% of households earning about $ 308,000, said the research center, which is run by the Urban Liberal Institute and the Brookings Institution.
Still, keeping the Democrats united won’t be any easier as the party tries to push the rest of its agenda forward. There are loopholes within the party on priorities like immigration, health care and taxes.
At some point, it seems likely that progressives will draw their own lines in the sand. They are already asking the party to review the minimum wage stimulus, and in the midst of it all, Republicans are already showing they are ready to pounce.
The American Action Network, linked to House GOP leaders, said it has launched digital ads in mostly moderate districts, calling the relief bill a “frivolous spending freight train to fund their liberal cronies.” “.
The bill was passed by the Senate under budget rules that prevented Republicans from throwing filibusters, which require 60 votes for most measures. This process will not be available for much of the legislation in the future, but any defection from the Democratic Senate will make most bills non-starting anyway.
Even with their procedural advantage, the Democrats’ avenue to Senate victory has been marked by delays. Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Forced clerks to spend nearly 11 hours reading the entire 628-page bill; negotiations with Manchin over unemployment benefits lasted about nine hours; and the votes on three dozen amendments, almost all doomed to lose, took about 12 hours longer.
[ad_2]
Source link