President Biden is in an unusual position – the weaker the economy, the stronger the political argument for his COVID-19 stimulus package.
The administration seized a mediocre job report on Friday to argue that the full $ 1.9 trillion package proposed by Biden is essential.
Biden pointed to the kind of gloomy image that most presidents will normally suppress as he spoke in the White House state living room on Friday.
“It is very clear that our economy is still in trouble,” he said.
He went on to point out the “enormous pain” in the country, including not only high levels of unemployment and 15 million people behind in rent payments, but also rising suicide rates and domestic abuse.
From a political point of view, the president’s calculation is clear. He will probably not be accused of the current economic conditions, because he has just taken office, and the painting of the darkest picture explains the need for extensive action.
The Senate paved the way for a potential party vote on Biden’s stimulus measures in the early hours of Friday, when Vice President Harris voted decisively on crucial amendments.
In his remarks on Friday, Biden said: “I would like to do this with the support of the 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 be enough.”
It is. Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins Sanders criticizes Democrats willing to reduce eligibility for stimulus checks. Biden doubles his normal value at the White House. Memo report: bad jobs stimulate the case of the Biden stimulus MORE (Tomorrow) and nine other GOP senators have launched a compromise bill that costs about a third of Biden’s proposal. Other Republicans have simply spoken out against Biden’s move, saying it is bigger than necessary.
Rachel Greszler, a researcher at the Conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote about the dangers she sees raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. In his view, such a move would most severely affect some of the industries already hardest hit by the pandemic, such as hotels, restaurants and clothing retailers.
The chances of the $ 15 minimum wage being adopted soon dropped sharply. Sen. Joe Manchin
Joseph (Joe) ManchinSanders criticizes Democrats willing to reduce eligibility for incentive checks Memorandum: Bad jobs report boosts Biden stimulus case (DW.Va.) has indicated that he will not be supported by even his strongest lawyer, Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders Sanders criticizes Democrats who want to reduce eligibility for stimulus checks Sunday shows preview: budget resolution paves the way for the .9 trillion stimulus; Senate prepares for indictment process Memo report: Bad jobs boost stimulus case Biden MORE (I-Vt.), He accepted that it could not happen immediately.
However, conservatives like Greszler have general concerns about excessive government spending if a large stimulus measure is adopted.
She argued that a debt crisis for the United States is “certainly plausible in the not-too-distant future” and that the way back from the crisis is mainly through an effective vaccination program that will accelerate a complete reopening of the economy.
“The stimulus bill I’m talking about now is not timely or targeted and is only used to throw a ton of wish list items in a package,” she said.
The skeptics’ case received unexpected assistance from Larry Summers, who was Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and was a key economic adviser to President Obama.
In a Washington Post published on Thursday, Summers argued, in essence, that the current proposal is too big.
Summers, in a sense, was making an optimistic case. Unemployment is declining and demand is “likely to continue to strengthen,” he wrote.
The dangers, he argued, were that massive public spending could trigger inflationary pressures and leave less money to meet other priorities later.
Summers have always been viewed with disgust by progressives, who blame him for advancing deregulation under Clinton and stopped Obama’s response to the Great Recession, among other things.
There was a firm push from the White House against his latest intervention.
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein Memo report: Bad jobs boost Biden stimulus case More than 200 Obama officials sign letter backing Biden stimulus plan Biden economic adviser calls Summers ‘wrong’ with inflation remarks, a member of the Biden Council of Economic Advisers, said in a White House briefing on Friday that Summers was “just wrong,” suggesting the president did not care about the threat of inflation.
Asked about Summers’ apparent belief that the Biden administration goes beyond his proposal, Bernstein replied: “No, I would strongly agree with that statement. … We have to hit hard, we have to hit hard. ”
Other economists with a liberal tendency see it the same way.
“The Biden plan is a deliberate expansion because, as I understand it, they believe the economy has been too cold for a very long time – since the Great Recession – and we need a period of very strong growth to repair the damage,” he said. Josh Bivens, research director at the Institute for Economic Policy, leaning to the left.
Bivens also questioned the idea that a large stimulus measure would now lead to political and literal capital for Biden later. A public perception that the White House has effectively encountered current economic problems would “strengthen the ground” for further action, Bivens said.
Among Democrats, there is clearly an appetite for action, whether Republicans like to come or not.
Many on the left cite the Obama administration’s experience, saying the White House has made too many concessions to seek GOP cooperation that has never materialized.
Even now, “I think Republicans have never been serious about negotiating an economic recovery package,” said Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky.
“I have seen this playing card from [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell: Republicans seek to hit Democrats over reopening GOP school blames White House staff for lack of COVID-19 aid agreement [R-Ky.]Roginsky added. “He knows very well that if the economy shrinks in the next two years, the chances of him regaining a majority in the Senate are better.”
Memo is a column reported by Niall Stanage.