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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden appeared on Monday to increase his coronavirus vaccination target in his first 100 days in office, suggesting that the country could soon vaccinate 1.5 million Americans on average per day.
Biden signaled his growing optimism about the pace of vaccinations after an executive order was signed to boost government purchases from U.S. manufacturers. It was among a wave of moves by Biden in his first full week to show he is taking swift action to heal a struggling economy as talks with Congress on a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package. dollars showed little sign of progress.
Biden reiterated that he believed the country was in a precarious situation and that relief was urgently needed, even as he rejected the possibility of passing a scaled-down bill to ensure faster passage. Features of the stimulus package include a national immunization program, assistance to reopen schools, direct payments of $ 1,400 to individuals, and financial assistance to state and local governments.
“Time is running out,” Biden said. “I’m reluctant to pick and choose one or two items here.”
Biden’s new vaccination target comes after he and his aides were criticized for the 100 million goal during his first 100 days in office. The United States has exceeded the rate of 1 million doses per day over the past week.
“I think we can maybe get to… 1.5 million a day, rather than 1 million a day,” Biden said, “but we have to meet that goal of a million a day.”
Biden added that he expects widespread availability of vaccines to Americans by spring, with the United States “well on track to the herd immunity” needed to end the pandemic by ‘summer. Even so, he warned that the nation was going to be “in this situation for a while, and could see between” 600,000 and 660,000 dead before we start to turn the corner in any major way. “
Already, more than 420,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.
Biden’s team held a call on Sunday to outline the stimulus package with at least a dozen senators, while the president also spoke privately with lawmakers.
“There is an urgent need to move things forward, and he certainly thinks there must be progress in the coming weeks,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday. She warned that action must be taken before the United States hits an “unemployment cliff” in March, when long-term unemployment benefits expire for millions of Americans.
But Republicans on Capitol Hill were not joining the campaign for immediate action.
A key Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, said after Sunday’s call that “it seems premature to consider a package of this size and scope.” Collins described the additional funding for vaccinations as helpful while warning that any economic aid should be more targeted.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said on Monday that “any further action should be smart and targeted, not just a vague deluge of borrowed money that would direct huge sums to those who don’t.” don’t need it.
Biden sought to play down the rhetoric from GOP lawmakers, saying, “I have been in legislative negotiations for much of my life. I know how the system works. “
“This is just the start of the process,” he added. “No one wants to give up their position until there is another alternative.”
Monday’s order will likely take 45 days or more to work its way through federal bureaucracy, during which time arguing with Congress could produce a new aid package. It would be a follow-up to the roughly $ 4 trillion previously approved to combat the economic and medical fallout from the coronavirus.
The order was aimed at increasing jobs at factories, which have fallen by 540,000 since the pandemic began last year.
“America cannot stand aside in the race going forward,” Biden said before signing the order in Eisenhower’s executive office building. “We are ready, despite everything we face.”
Biden’s order would change the rules of the Buy American program, making it harder for entrepreneurs to qualify for a waiver and sell foreign-made products to federal agencies. It also changes the rules so that more of the components of a manufactured product must come from US factories. Products made in the United States would also be protected by an increase in the government’s price threshold and preferences, the price difference over which the government can buy a foreign product.
It’s an order that channels Biden’s blue-collar personality and his promise to use the government’s market power to support his industrial base, a move former President Donald Trump has also attempted with executive actions and import taxes.
“Thanks to former presidents who waived the trade pact for Buy American, today billions of US dollars are slipped overseas every year because the products and businesses of 60 other countries are treated like s “They were American for government procurement purposes,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and critic of past trade deals.
While Trump has also released a series of executive actions and tariffs in an attempt to boost manufacturing, he has not attempted to rewrite the guidelines on what constitutes a U.S.-made component or to tighten the process of manufacturing. ‘granting of exemptions to purchase foreign products, a key difference. of Biden’s agenda, the Biden administration said.
The order also includes items that apply to the separate Buy America program that applies to highways and bridges. It aims to open up public markets to new businesses by looking for potential entrepreneurs. The ordinance would create a public website for companies that have been given waivers to sell foreign products to the government, so that American manufacturers can have more information and be in a more competitive position.
Former presidents have vowed to revitalize the manufacturing sector as a source of job growth and have had mixed results. The government helped save the auto industry after the 2008 financial crisis, but the number of factory jobs has steadily declined over the past four decades.
The number of manufacturing jobs in the United States peaked in 1979 at 19.5 million and now stands at 12.3 million, according to the Department of Labor.
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Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report from Washington.
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