WASHINGTON – Republicans target for President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package: $ 1.9 trillion: erode public support for the bailout plan by portraying it as too big, too inflated and too useless public spending for an almost finished pandemic.
Republicans in the Senate prepared Saturday to vote against the assistance bill, assuming the calculated political risk that Americans will get as unnecessary spending in significant dollars for the distribution of vaccination, benefits unemployment, money for states and other expenses, once they know all the details. .
Resurrecting a page from the 2009 withdrawal from President Barack Obama’s costly recovery from the financial crisis, they expect his opposition to pay political rewards, just as the previous effort contributed to Republicans ’rise to power.
It is a proven strategy, but it comes at an uncertain and volatile time for the nation. Americans experience flickers of optimism on the one-year anniversary of the deadly outbreak as more people are vaccinated. But new strains of the virus and a still unstable economy could trigger another devastating cycle of infections, blockages and deaths. More than 500,000 Americans have died.
So far, public support for Biden’s approach to the pandemic is high. Overall, 70% of Americans respond to the Democratic president’s handling of the Democratic virus, including 44% of Republicans, according to a new survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Biden and Democrats warn that now is not the time to give up aid and that it is better to risk doing too much than too little. They say the costs of amortizing the bailout risk stopping the economic recovery, as many believe happened in 2009.
“When the house is on fire, it doesn’t argue about how much fire needs to be put out,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Said during Friday’s session.
“Do whatever it takes until the crisis is over,” he said. “And you do it as fast as you can.”
The debate in Congress reflects a fundamental divide in the country over how to contain and crush the pandemic and restore the nation’s normalcy.
Nearly 10 million jobs have been lost and some 11 million households are facing evictions. While Democratic leaders generally side with health professionals who support restrictions on social distancing and facilitate the reopening of school and the workplace, Republicans in Congress have been more eager to do business as much as possible. as close as possible.
The United States is not alone in facing the daunting dilemma that has serious ramifications over the size and scope of aid needed to avert a new economic catastrophe.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who leads his minority party toward the “no” vote, said Biden’s 628-page bill is a democratic “wish list” that does not meet the moment because the pandemic is rising and the economy is poised for a “roaring recovery.”
“We are already on the path to recovering from the crisis,” he said.
Republicans argue that Congress has already passed historic sums to counter the pandemic and are concerned that large spending will overheat the economy, sparking inflationary fears, even though economists are mixed with those concerns. They have an opening with voters that polls show skeptics about Biden’s handling of the economy.
McConnell expressed similar optimism last spring when he “paused” on new spending after the approval of the initial round of grants. At the time, then-President Donald Trump promised that Americans would return to normalcy on Easter Sunday.
But, as Texas announced last week that it would try to end the requirements for the use of face masks, one of the key strategies of public health officials says it helps stop the spread of the virus, resurrecting fault lines and known political anxieties. Texas was one of the first states to reopen in May, and dropped restrictions at the start of the second wave of the pandemic that spread over the summer.
Jason Furman, the former chairman of the Obama Economic Advisory Board who now teaches at Harvard, agrees that parts of the Biden package are too large, suggesting that $ 350 billion could be cut in states and cities. or that there could be stricter barriers against waste. But he said the biggest economic danger is not doing enough.
Vaccines alone are not enough to ensure a healthy economy, he said. Households are struggling and businesses are facing changing consumer habits and spending. The Biden package offers $ 1,400 in direct payments to individuals, phased out for those earning $ 80,000 a year.
“If you add up the financial needs of households and the deficiencies facing states, the American Rescue Plan supplements them,” he said in an email. “But no legislation is perfect, and as I said, if the downside is that families make a little more money in a particular year, that’s a lot less bad than if Congress didn’t act.”
When Biden embarked on a partisan strategy that relied on Democratic votes, Republicans were in a fighting mode.
Senate Republicans forced the bill to be read all night Thursday, delaying the start of the debate.
On Friday, senators launched a day-to-day session on amendments, mostly Republican, designed in part to change the bill, but also to highlight costly spending and less popular provisions. By early Saturday, most were failing.
The Democrats ’own amendment, to reduce the extra unemployment benefits from $ 400 a week to $ 300, split their ranks and caused more delays, before it was finally accepted.
Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Who was forced to read the bill, used graphics and accessories to help Americans understand the $ 1.9 trillion package size.
“The human mind cannot contemplate what a trillion is,” he said, before throwing himself into examples. He suggested a stack of $ 1 bills extend the distance to the moon.
Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said they hope to turn public opinion upside down.
“We will expose all the ugly details,” he said.
The White House is well aware of the challenges they face. Many of Biden’s staff members are veterans of the 2009 battles.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that at the time they did not do enough to explain to the American people the benefits of a way “that people would talk about at their dinner tables.”
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.