[ad_1]
President-elect Joe Biden has begun to unveil an ambitious legislative agenda – and although he has signaled hope for bipartisan support, several Senate Republicans are already outright rejecting his new coronavirus relief plan.
Biden on Thursday unveiled a $ 1.9 trillion proposal that will include a $ 1,400 stimulus check; billions of funds for vaccine distribution and testing; and additional assistance to state and local governments. It aims to address the massive economic fallout the country continues to suffer from the coronavirus pandemic and complement the federal aid that has been distributed through the $ 2 trillion CARES Act and a second $ 900 billion measure. last year.
“It’s not just that smart tax investments, including deficit spending, are more urgent than ever,” Biden said in a speech promoting the measure, dubbed the “US bailout,” last week. . “It’s that the return on those investments – in jobs, in racial equity – will avoid long-term economic damage and the benefits will far outweigh the costs.”
In the same remarks, Biden pointed out that 18 million people currently have unemployment insurance and that 400,000 small businesses have closed their doors for good – two indications that millions of Americans still need extra support.
Several Democrats responded to the plan by urging Biden to consider even more expansive measures, including provisions such as recurring stimulus checks and baby bonds, which would create a federally funded savings account for each new- born. Republicans, however, are starting to line up against the proposal – echoing concerns they have long expressed about how such spending could increase the national debt.
“Explode an additional $ 2 trillion in borrowed or printed money – while the ink on December’s $ 1 trillion aid bill barely dries and much of the money is not still spent – would be a colossal waste and economically harmful, ”Senator Patrick Toomey (R -PA) said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to comment on the proposal, although he has been reluctant to approve larger relief bills in the past, and cited the rift within his conference on the issue as the reason.
The denial that has emerged so far suggests that the Republican opposition could potentially prevent the approval of this bill via a regular order: since most laws require 60 votes to pass in the Senate, Democrats would need to 10 Republicans to support the measure, given the House 50-50. Split. If they do not garner that support, Democrats may need to consider other procedural options that would allow them to bypass the 60-vote rule, including fiscal reconciliation.
Republicans step up fiscal conservatism, yet again
Like Toomey, other Republican lawmakers – including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) – have indicated they want to focus on fiscal conservatism (essentially, limiting additions to the national debt) now that Democrats have won back. the White House.
Many party members appear to be doing so even though such actions contradict the positions they took during the Trump administration. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts would add $ 1 trillion to $ 2 trillion to the national debt, according to the Tax Policy Center.
Renewed Republican focus on debt was increasingly apparent last year, as GOP senators sought to limit the scope of the second stimulus package: Republican lawmakers repeatedly pushed for legislation less than $ 1 trillion.
And as Bloomberg reported at the time, that opposition led to speculation about whether such positions meant Republicans would reinstall themselves as the “no party” in a Biden presidency. Early indications seem to suggest that the GOP will indeed adopt this strategy, with which they have attempted to block many of the Obama administration’s legislative efforts.
“We can’t just spend huge amounts on this without any accountability to the current and future U.S. taxpayer,” Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) recently told the Washington Post of Biden’s coronavirus relief program.
While there is debate among experts on how much aid is needed for coronaviruses, as Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained last spring, concerns about debt are difficult to argue in these current economic times. due to a few factors, including falling interest rates:
To be sure, there are times when worrying about debt makes sense. Countries like the United States that prints their own currency can in principle still pay their debts, but there is a risk that this will involve printing so much money that hyperinflation follows. If this posed a real danger, the United States would have to think twice about a massive increase in the deficit.
But inflation, let alone hyperinflation, is not a real danger right now. According to the Fed’s preferred measure, inflation was well below its 2% target even before the coronavirus hit.
Some Republicans might sign for more relief – but it’s unclear if Democrats can reach 10
A segment of the Republican conference might be willing to work with Biden on more relief, though it’s likely there will be pressure to scale back the measure in return for their support. Biden’s opening offer calls for raising the minimum hourly wage to $ 15 – a provision that has sparked a significant Republican pullback in the past, for example. It is possible that initiatives like these will be set aside for future legislation in order to gain GOP support for the larger package.
“There is a lot in this package that I can support. Some of which I can’t. We are not going to bail out a group of mismanaged blue states, ”Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Friday.
Previously, the senses. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) were part of a bipartisan group that helped craft a compromise bill on help last. year. He included some of the provisions Biden called for, and they’re among those who might be more open to considering additional support this time around, too. Senses Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) also backed a bill to increase the recent round of stimulus checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000 – another important part of Biden’s plan.
However, whether Democrats and Republicans can reach a compromise on the legislation and get the votes needed to meet the 60-person threshold needed to pass it is an open question. If they can’t, Democrats might choose to push parts of this legislation forward through the process known as budget reconciliation.
Unlike most bills, budget resolutions can be passed by the Senate by a simple majority of votes – although there are limits to what they could include. Going this route, Democrats could pass a bill with all 50 members of their caucus and a tiebreaker from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“Not everything can happen with a budget reconciliation,” wrote Dylan Matthews of Vox. “This probably rules out measures like an increase in the minimum wage, or the creation of a state in Washington and Puerto Rico, or updates to the voting rights law, or a reform of gerrymandering.”
As Matthews notes, however, any spending and tax-related provisions that would expire within 10 years, are deficit neutral, and do not change Social Security could all be eligible. This means that aspects of the stimulus proposal – like another round of checks, as well as an extension of paid medical leave – could potentially go through a budget reconciliation if that’s the only option available to Democrats.
[ad_2]
Source link