U.S. President-elect Biden proposed an economic rescue plan totaling $1.9 trillion on the 14th to deal with the worsening coronavirus epidemic and promote the economic recovery of the United States.
However, the plan may be boycotted by some members of Congress who oppose a large expansion of the fiscal deficit. Whether it can be approved by the U.S. Congress is still uncertain.
Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, on the same day, Biden said that the economic relief plan passed by the U.S. Congress at the end of last year was far from enough to deal with the crisis, and more measures needed to control the epidemic and rescue the economy.
He proposed a “two-step” plan for rescue and recovery, providing financial assistance to American households, businesses, local governments, etc., and promoting economic recovery through investment in infrastructure, clean energy, R&D and innovation.
According to the $1.9 trillion “America Relief Plan” announced by the Biden team on the same day, about $400 billion will be used to fight the epidemic, about $1 trillion will provide economic relief to American families hit by the epidemic, and about $440 billion will be used for small businesses, state and local governments struggling with the epidemic. For assistance.
In response, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Pelosi and Democratic Leader Schumer of the Senate issued a joint statement saying that the current U.S. family is facing multiple crises such as the coronavirus epidemic, recession, racial inequality, climate change, etc., and it is hoped that Republican lawmakers will cooperate with Democrats to transform Biden’s economic rescue plan into Legislation approved by Congress.
Analysts pointed out that Biden’s announcement of the economic rescue plan before taking the official oath highlights the urgency of the recent deterioration of the epidemic in the United States and the slowdown in economic recovery.
According to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of employed people in the non-agricultural sector fell by about 140,000 month-on-month last December, the first decline in eight months. Last week, the number of first-time jobless claims in the United States rose to 965,000, a five-month high, indicating that the rebound of the epidemic has frustrated the recovery process of the U.S. job market. .
How to rebuild the U.S. economy, which has been hit hard by the epidemic, promote economic recovery and create jobs will be an important economic challenge facing the Biden administration after taking office.
If a new round of economic relief is not passed, the livelihood security of low-income families in the United States will face problems in a few months, and the economic recovery will be suppressed.
However, after Congress approved an economic relief bill of about $900 billion last December, congressional Republican leaders have hinted that they do not want to introduce a new round of large-scale economic relief.
Kevin Brady, a senior Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement that night criticizing Biden’s proposed economic package for not helping to rescue ordinary businesses and get people back to work. Republican Jason Smith of the House Budget Committee also criticized Biden’s economic plan for being too ambitious and broad.
The Democratic Party is not monolithic. Centrist Democratic Congressman Joe Manchin said recently that he did not support Biden and Democratic leaders’ proposal to increase the amount of personal relief in the United States from $600 to $2,000, highlighting the difficulty of the Biden team to seek broad support from congressmen for the economic assistance plan.
According to U.S. media statistics, after the Democrats won two Senate seats representing Georgia, the Democratic and Republican parties will each hold 50 seats in the Senate.
Once the two parties tie in the vote, Democratic Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who is expected to take office on the 20th of this month, will vote decisively as the President of the Senate. This means that Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate.
While some legislation can only be passed with 50 votes in the Senate, most bills still need to reach the 60-vote threshold, which means that it is not easy for the Biden team to still win the support of at least 10 Republican senators for key legislation.
Next, the Senate will hear Trump’s impeachment, which may also intensify bipartisan contradictions and affect bipartisan cooperation and support for a new round of economic rescue plans.
Wall Street institutions are expecting much less than Biden’s proposal for the size of the next round of the U.S. economic rescue plan.
Pacific Investment Management Company expects a new round of economic relief plan to be about $1 trillion, while JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Group and UBS Group all have forecasts below $1 trillion.
It is worth noting that the premise of sustained recovery of the U.S. economy is still to control the epidemic.
Economic assistance alone cannot stop the spread of the epidemic, nor can it solve the problems of permanent unemployment, bankruptcy, widening the gap between rich and poor caused by the epidemic.
