President Joe Biden on Friday defended his administration’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid stimulus plan, warning that Republican efforts to pass a minor bill would only extend the economy back to full employment.
Biden, speaking from the White House, said he supported the move by the Democrats in Congress to advance their American bailout plan without bipartisan support.
“I’d like to do it with Republican support. I’ve met with Republicans … but they’re just not ready to go as far as I think we have to go,” said Biden.
“When I have to decide whether to get help now for Americans who are so badly injured, or if I’m stuck in monthly negotiations or compromised on a bill that can cope with the crisis, it’s an easy choice,” he added.
The president’s comments came as both the House and Senate are trying to pass a coronavirus relief bill within two weeks that uses a budgetary tool that allowed Democrats to break the $ 1.9 trillion GOP-free plan -Votes can work through.
The Senate passed a budget decision early Friday after a marathon of votes on dozen of amendments. The house plans to follow suit in the afternoon.
But Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, said Friday that he would have preferred to work with Republicans if they hadn’t insisted on a much smaller $ 600 billion proposal.
The White House initially announced it would find compromise areas for its $ 1.9 trillion proposal in order to get enough GOP support to pass the Senate with 60 votes.
But the $ 618 billion refutation by a group of moderate senators, including Mitt Romney from Utah and Susan Collins from Maine, turned out to be too minor for Democrats to accept.
But the criticism isn’t just from Republicans.
Former Treasury Secretary and director of Obama’s National Economic Council, Larry Summers, warned in a Washington Post statement Thursday that the size of the law could trigger unexpected inflation and limit Biden’s political capital for future laws.
The president seemed to have little understanding of the fear of overstretching public finances.
“What the Republicans have suggested is either nothing or not enough to do,” said Biden. “Suddenly, many of them have rediscovered fiscal reluctance and concern about deficits. But make no mistake about it, this approach comes at a cost.”
“More pain for more people for longer than necessary,” he added.
To argue against the size of the nearly $ 2 trillion package, Republicans relied on a recent report by the Impartial Budget Office of Congress that stated that US GDP growth is expected to return to its position by mid-2021 pre-pandemic size will return.
The CBO, which released its results on Monday, said US economic growth would recover “quickly” and the unemployment rate could fall from 6.3% this year to 5.3%. Importantly, the agency said its rosier projections are not taking any new impetus, including Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion plan.
However, Biden highlighted another finding in the CBO report: Without additional incentives, the economy would return to full employment by the end of 2024.
“We don’t have to wait until 2025 to get back to full employment,” said the president. “For me, that’s what matters right now: are we going to get a package big enough to vaccinate people, get people back to work, and alleviate suffering in this country this year?”
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