Home Democrats goal to attain groundbreaking, substantial COVID-19 aid by the tip of the month

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As with the survival tests, the child loan would be means tested to expire from $ 75,000 for a single applicant and $ 150,000 for co-earners. That would provide the credit to 27 million children in low-income families, estimates the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “including about half of all black and Latin American children – whose families are now not getting full credit because their parents are not to do.” Don’t earn enough. “Almost 10 million children would be raised at or above the federal poverty line,” including 2.3 million black children, 4.1 million Latino children and 441,000 Asian-American children. “

1.1 million people live in “deep poverty” and their families are raised to 50% of the poverty line. Republicans will argue that this is a barrier to work as it is always the Republicans’ excuse for punishing poor people. Instead, millions of low-income workers are being punished. To use an example from CBPP: “A single mother of an infant who earns $ 10,000 annually on home care for the elderly (with hours that vary significantly from month to month) now receives a child tax credit of $ 1,125. Under the Biden Plan, she would receive $ 3,600, a profit of $ 2,475. “

Those handful of Republicans, engaged enough to be flattered by Biden’s attention, offered a paltry $ 600 billion, which Biden politely turned down, keeping his promise of great, bold relief. But with a smile that seemed to reassure the Republicans. “The president was very kind,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy told the New York Times. “If we want to move forward as a country, we have to do a better job than before to find out where those who disagree with us come from.” They are unlikely to support Biden’s plan, but it won’t be due to a lack of courtesy on his part.

This despite the fact that the plan will do all the things that they have asked for, namely reopen schools that they did not want to support at all. Vaccinations and money are required to reopen schools and businesses. It will take infrastructure work to bring ventilation systems in buildings up to date so that they are safe. Funding must be given to state and local governments to reinstate all public service workers, including health workers, who have been laid off or on leave because of falling revenues. It will take people with some cash in their pockets to spend in the businesses that the Biden Plan will help too. There’s another $ 15 billion round for the aviation industry. $ 25 billion for bars and restaurants with grants that can be used for payroll, rent, utilities, and other overheads; an additional $ 7.25 billion for the Republican-created paycheck protection program. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program.)

It would be a pretty silly policy for Republicans to fight all of this and refuse to be part of the nation’s recovery from the pandemic. It would be criminal for a Democrat to refuse to help Biden start the end of income inequality in the country (you see Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin). This includes increasing the minimum wage, especially if Biden offers the concession that the ramp to $ 15 / hour takes a little longer. “Nobody should work 40 hours a week and live in poverty,” Biden said Tuesday evening at Milwaukee City Hall. “But it’s perfectly legitimate for small business owners to worry about how that will change.”

“Let’s say you said you were going to increase the minimum wage from $ 7.25 an hour to $ 12 an hour to $ 13 an hour by 2025 – you’d double a person’s salary and the business impact would absolutely decrease. and GDP would grow, “Biden said. However, he still fell short of a minimum wage of $ 15 / hour, he repeated. The Congressional Budget Bureau said that just raising the minimum wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty and raise incomes for an additional 17 million.

The CBO responded to a query from Senator Bernie Sanders that raising the minimum wage would have “far-reaching economic repercussions” that would affect most parts of the federal budget and, more importantly, more economic repercussions than two measures Republicans are imposing In 2017, as part of the budget vote, the penalty for taking out insurance under the Affordable Care Act and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was lifted. Here’s why this matters: These things were allowed by the Senate MP to stay in the Republican Budget Adjustment Act, which dramatically lowered taxes for the rich and corporate.

So it was wise for Sanders to think that the CBO was weighing these provisions as it seeks to include the $ 15 minimum wage, a provision that arguably cannot be included in a budget vote bill due to the secret Senate rules. Also, which is the main thing that Democrats Sinema and Manchin are complaining about, the Senate rules. This CBO statement gives Sanders and Democrats every reason to take up the provision and force Manchin and Sinema to either help their president achieve his goals or to join the Republicans.

Biden is on the cusp of doing something transformative here, not just getting the nation back on track to recover from this disaster, but (to use his awkwardly cheesy campaign phrase) better rebuilding it. As a first test of his plans for the nation’s future, this couldn’t be more important. Outdated and irrelevant feelings about the days when there was comity in the Senate can’t get in the way.