Joe Biden to unveil $ 1.9 trillion plan to stimulate battered US economy

Future United States President Joe Biden plans to present a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package for the nation’s economy Thursday night, which he expects to vote on immediately in Congress.

With just six days of his accession to power, the former Democratic leader wants to publicize the so-called “American rescue plan”, with which he hopes to revive the productive apparatus of the country hardest hit by the pandemic, which in already accumulates 23.3. million positive cases and 387,103 deaths, according to an independent count from Johns Hopkins University.

The initiative, which must receive Congress approval as well as pre-approved packages, includes a series of direct payments of $ 1,400, an unemployment insurance supplement of 400 per week until September, an extension of paid leave and increases in the child tax credit, according to a summary advanced to reporters.

In addition, allocates 160,000 million dollars to the vaccination program in the country, $ 20 billion for dose distribution tasks, as well as $ 50 billion for testing.

It also proposes to invest 170,000 million in schools and higher education institutions, including an amount of 130,000 million to ensure that educational institutions can reopen safely despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden was also expected to seek approval for a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour, just over double what is currently paid federally.

In addition, these grants, presented as emergency measureswill be supplemented “in the coming weeks” by an innovative investment plan aimed at economic recovery.

As reported by Bloomberg agency, the plan should be the first phase of a two-pronged strategy, with a broader program in the coming weeks focusing on longer-term goals such as infrastructure and climate change.

Just over a week after the violent attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, and in a tense political climate following the second indictment against outgoing President Donald Trump, the future Democratic leader is seeking significant bipartisan support for his aid plan.

Biden will present his plan on the same day that a report was released showing largest increase in weekly jobless claims since March, with 965,000 Americans claiming state benefits.

The president-elect was preparing to speak Thursday evening from Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives. Biden’s plans “will reflect the urgency of the economic situation our country finds itself in and the need for action, urgent action,” said Brian Deese, who will be director of the Biden National Economic Council, in an interview. cited by Bloomberg and The New York Times.

Biden aims to replicate the bipartisanship behind the December aid deal, Deese added.

“We need to focus on unity, even at such a difficult and difficult time as this,” he said.

Plan approved in December

Last December, Congress approved an economic stimulus plan for $ 900,000 million, which included the payment of 300 dollars per week to each unemployed person and extended until January 31 a rule which suspended evictions and which was to expire at the end of the year.

In addition, it includes 325 billion in aid for small and medium-sized enterprises, 45 billion for public transport, 13 billion in food aid and 82 billion for schools to repair their facilities and adapt them to education in the midst of the pandemic. .

For the airlines, it allocated $ 15 billion to pay the salaries of its employees.

In March of last year, when the country suffered the greatest impact from the pandemic, Congress approved another aid package, worth $ 2.2 trillion, the largest of the history of the country.

Source: AFP and EFE

CB