President Biden on Friday led a Rose Garden celebration of his newly signed $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus project, but did not include Republicans and once again received no questions from reporters.
Biden began his public relations drive to promote the bill that was passed only with Democratic votes after he signed it on Thursday, and returned to many of the topics of his early Thursday speech.
“This is not over, the conditions may change. We’re not done yet … Scientists have warned us about new variants of this virus, and the devil is in the details of implementing this legislation, “Biden said.
The president was joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), and a socially distanced group of other congressional Democrats.
Biden insisted that Republican voters supported his first major legislative achievement as president, even as he did not get any Republican votes, as Democrats got it through Congress under the rules of budget conciliation.
“What you made public in Congress is not only fulfilled with the moment. It does even more. It is historic and they call it transformative. And it really is, ”said Biden.
“We’re showing that it’s possible to do great things.”
The bill grants $ 1,400 stimulus checks to Americans earning less than $ 75,000 a year and extends a $ 300 weekly unemployment supplement through Sept. 6.
“For a typical family of four, a middle class, a husband and a wife who work earning $ 110,000, that means a $ 5,600 check they’ll get. Eighty-five percent of American households will get that money,” he said. dir Biden.
The package contains $ 350 billion in state and local aid and $ 75 billion for COVID-19 vaccination, testing, and other pandemic medical supplies.
Some Republicans denounced the bill as “socialism,” but in their statements Biden set fire to Republican fiscal policies.
“The paradigm is changing. For the first time in a long time, this bill puts working people in this country first. It is not hyperbole. It’s a fact, ”Biden said.
“This is the first time we can, from the Johnson administration and maybe even before, start changing the paradigm. We’ve seen time and time again that drip doesn’t work.”
Biden said “it’s time we built an economy that grows from the bottom up and from the middle.”
But Biden, who has not held a press conference since taking office more than 50 days ago, again ignored questions from a journalist before returning to the White House. Later, on his way to Delaware, Biden ignored another question about the fate of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The stimulus bill grants $ 1,400 stimulus checks to adults earning up to $ 75,000 a year, with smaller amounts for people earning less than $ 80,000. An additional check of $ 1,400 is granted for each dependent child, but in exchange for past stimulus checks, income limits also apply to child checks.
Parents also get a new annual tax credit of $ 3,000 to $ 3,600 per child on the bill, up from $ 2,000 per child currently.
The bill establishes 15 weeks of paid leave for federal workers, including U.S. Postal Service employees, for reasons related to COVID-19, including the care of children who have no school or daycare.
It creates a new $ 25 billion grant program specifically for bars and restaurants that will offset lost revenue and allow the government to reimburse health insurance premiums for people who continue with employers ’policies after losing the work.
It also offers more than $ 120 billion for K-12 schools, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that no more than 90% will be spent in 2021 because no approved funds have been spent on schools in the year past.
Republicans said the bill is wasteful and could spur inflation and criticized Biden’s main direction for claiming credit to expand vaccines against COVID-19, not to mention that former President Donald’s administration Trump invested billions in vaccine research and development successfully.
Biden said in the Rose Garden that he was worried about people not trusting the government, implicitly calling his predecessor.
“Look, one of the things that has worried me the most (and I think you have it too, especially those of us who have been 100 years like me) is that you’ve seen people lose confidence in the government, just lose confidence in we tell the truth, ”Biden said.