President Biden is in an unusual position: the weaker the economy is perceived, the stronger the political case of his COVID-19 stimulus package.
The administration on Friday seized a report on mediocre jobs to argue that the full $ 1.9 trillion package that Biden has proposed is essential.
Biden outlined the kind of bleak picture most presidents would normally suppress as he spoke Friday at the White House state dining hall.
“Clearly our economy is still in trouble,” he said.
He went on to outline “enormous pain” in the country, which included not only high levels of unemployment and 15 million people back on rent payments, but also rising suicide and domestic abuse rates.
Politically speaking, the president’s calculation is clear. Presumably he will not be blamed for the current economic conditions since he just took office and painted the darkest picture possible explains the need for extensive action.
The Senate paved the way for a possible online party vote on Biden’s stimulus measures early Friday, when Vice President Harris cast the casting vote on crucial amendments.
In his statements Friday, Biden said, “I would like to do that with the support of Republicans … but they are not willing to go as far as I think we should go.”
He later added that “what the Republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough.”
His. Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins Sanders criticizes Democrats for being willing to reduce eligibility for stimulus controls. Biden doubles normalcy in the White House. The Memo: Bad Jobs report increases Biden MORE stimulus case (Maine) and nine other GOP senators have introduced a compromise bill that comes at a cost of about a third of Biden’s proposal. Other Republicans have simply registered their opposition to the Biden measure, which they consider to be greater than necessary.
Rachel Greszler, a researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation, has written about the dangers she sees raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. In his view, this measure would more severely affect some of the industries that were already hardest hit by the pandemic, such as hotels, restaurants and clothing retailers.
The chances of the $ 15 minimum wage being promulgated soon have abruptly diminished. Sen. Joe Manchin
Joseph (Joe) ManchinSanders criticizes Democrats for being willing to reduce eligibility for stimulus checks. The Memory Report: Bad Work Increases the Case of Biden Stimulus. (DW.Va.) has indicated that he would not support it and even his strongest advocate, the senator. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders Sanders criticizes Democrats for being willing to cut requirements for stimulus testing Sunday forecast: Budget resolution paves the way for the 0.9 trillion stimulus; The Senate is preparing for the impeachment trial. The Memo: Bad Jobs report increases Biden MORE stimulus case (I-Vt.), Has accepted that it cannot happen immediately.
Still, conservatives like Greszler have general concerns about government overspending if a high-stimulus measure is passed.
He argued that a debt crisis for the United States is “definitely plausible in the not-too-distant future” and that the way back from the crisis lies primarily in an effective vaccination program that will accelerate the full reopening of the economy.
“The stimulus bill they are talking about now is not timely or targeted and is only used to throw a bunch of wish list items into a package,” he said.
The skeptics’ case received unexpected help from Larry Summers, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and was a key economic adviser to President Obama.
In a post published Thursday in the Washington Post, Summers argued, in essence, that the current proposal was too big.
Summers, in a sense, made an optimistic case. He wrote that unemployment is falling and “demand is likely to strengthen.”
According to him, the dangers were that massive public spending could provoke inflationary pressures and leave less money to face other priorities later.
Summers have always been viewed with disgust by progressives, who blame him for advancing deregulation under Clinton and slowing Obama’s response to the Great Recession, among other things.
There was a sharp backlash from the White House against its latest intervention.
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein: The Memo Report: Bad Jobs Increases Biden Stimulus Case More than 200 Obama officials sign letter supporting Biden stimulus plan Biden economic adviser calls Summers “bad plan” with observations on inflation MORE, a member of Biden’s Economic Advisory Board, said Friday during a White House briefing that Summers was “wrong” in suggesting the president doesn’t care about the threat of inflation.
Asked about Summers’ apparent belief that the Biden administration was overreacting to his proposal, Bernstein replied, “No, I would strongly disagree with that statement. … We must give a strong blow, we must give a strong blow “.
Other liberal-leaning economists see it the same way.
“The Biden plan is a deliberate scope because, as I understand it, they think the economy has stagnated too much for a long time (since the Great Recession) and we need a period of very strong growth to repair the damage.” . Said Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Institute for Economic Policy.
Bivens also argued with the idea that now a large measure of stimulus would later drop Biden into political and literal capital. Bivens claimed that the public perception that the White House had effectively solved the current economic problems would “strengthen its level” for further action.
Among Democrats, there is clearly an appetite for action, whether Republicans want to come or not.
Many leftists cite the Obama administration’s experience, where they say the White House made too many concessions in search of Republican Party cooperation that never materialized.
Even now, “I think Republicans were never serious about negotiating an economic recovery package,” said Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist.
“We have seen this game book since [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell: Republicans try to plunge Democrats into school reopening The GOP blames White House staff for the lack of a COVID-19 relief agreement. [R-Ky.]Roginsky added. “He knows full well that if the economy is maintained for the next two years, the chances of him recovering a majority in the Senate are better.”
The Memo is a column reported by Niall Stanage.