WASHINGTON: It’s not often that a president gets everything he asks for, but it has happened.
director Joe Biden Wanted $1.9 trillion to help the country get out of the coronavirus crisis last year, and Democrats in Congress gave.
The American rescue plan was filled with funding to distribute rental assistance, tax exemptions, direct payments and vaccines that had just become available. less than two months later Biden After taking office, it was a hopeful sign that he might fulfill his campaign promise to get Washington’s often wood-cutting machinery working again.
But the law’s legacy is more complicated than it originally appeared. Depending on who is telling the story, this is either Biden’s first success or he has set a trap for himself.
It may well prove to be a bit of both.
Friday marks the anniversary of Biden’s signing of the US rescue plan, and the second anniversary of the World Health Organization’s announcement that the coronavirus had become a global pandemic. Looking back, administration officials defend the relief package as a necessary step to save the economy and spur a national rebound, and they point to historically low unemployment as evidence of their success. We do.
“Given how flexible and equitable the recovery is in the face of military conflict in Europe at Delta, O’Micron and now, this strategy already seems wise,” said Gene Sperling, a Biden adviser tapped to oversee the law’s implementation. .
A portion of the bill’s spending was devoted directly to combating the pandemic, including buying shots and treatments, supporting testing and vaccination sites, and treating people infected with the virus that has killed more than 959,000 people in the US Was.
The rest were intended to repel state and local governments, ease the pain of job losses, and put money in the American pocketbook.
Critics say the latter set of policies stoked consumer demand at a time when supply chains cannot keep up, with the need to implement generational changes such as expanded education programs, subsidized child care and financial incentives to fight. Democratic efforts dampened the momentum. Climate change.
“The gamble was that it would create a breakthrough that would make people want to do more,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former top economic adviser to the president. Barack Obama, “But it contributed to the inflation that people wanted to reduce.”
“In some ways, this is the biggest result,” he said. “It was a gamble, and they lost that gamble, and it hurt.”
Inflation was 7.9% over the past 12 months, the highest in four decades, and Furman estimated that the rescue plan accounted for about 2.5 percentage points.
Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the Conservative American Enterprise Institute, put the figure at 3 percentage points.
“We didn’t really need another stimulus. The economy was already booming,” Strain said, noting that the president Donald Trump The two measures totaling $3.1 trillion were signed before Biden took office.
Administration officials reject those inflation projections, pointing to a study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank that said the rescue plan contributed to less than 1 percent of the increase.
“The harsh reality is that almost every major economy in the world has high prices and supply chain shocks,” Sperling said.
However, inflation was paramount when Sen. Joe Manchin, DWA killed Democratic dreams of using his unified control of Washington to expand the social safety net. Biden argues that his agenda, known as “build back better”, will limit rather than increase prices.
“Inflation is real, it’s not going away anytime soon,” Manchin told Fox News Sunday in December.
The failure of that law also thwarted efforts to increase monthly child tax credit payments, starting with the rescue plan. An estimated $93 billion was sent to 40 million families with 65 million children last year.
Representative Pramila JayapaliD-Wash., said it has no regrets about any inflation that may have been caused by the law, describing it as a “result for which we have to work.”
“There’s no doubt that the American rescue plan put money in people’s pockets, kept businesses open, took shots at weapons and the kind needed to fix our economy,” said Jayapal, who presides over Congress Progressive. He did.” Caucus.
Biden is still trying to get his aspirations back on track. Emily Simmons, a White House spokeswoman, said the president “continues to work with Congress on his agenda to reduce kitchen table costs for American families — drug prices, childcare, energy costs, and more.” addressing.”
A year after the US rescue plan was signed, the federal government has spent nearly all of its direct COVID-19 aid, which boosted the supply of home tests, provided free virus treatment for the uninsured and sent overseas Paid for the dose of the vaccine given. Help prevent the emergence of more dangerous forms.
Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on television commercials, promotions and promotions raised marginalized vaccination rates, but proved no match for the misinformation and bias surrounding the life-saving shots. The US vaccination rate for adults is 75% lower than other large advanced economies.
Now the White House is pushing Congress to approve more money for antibody therapies, a preventive therapy for immunity, and to fund community testing sites.
“We need this money,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. “Without additional resources from Congress, the results are dire.”
The funding proposal could be the casualty of talks on a broad budget measure that needs to be passed by the end of the week to keep the federal government running.
The omicron wave of coronavirus infections is decreasing rapidly, but more than 1,100 people are still dying from the virus every day in the US. The vast majority are not vaccinated or enhanced.
Although the pandemic has lasted longer than Americans expected, America is much closer to its pre-pandemic normal, as mask-mandates are on their way across the country, with nearly all schools open for in-person learning and offices are starting will once again be filled with workers.
According to administration officials, along with the COVID funds, the rest of the rescue plan money has already flown out of the federal government’s doors.
More than 170 million direct payments to individuals, known as economic impact payments, of at least $400 billion were distributed. The median amount was $2,300.
Schools received $122 billion in relief, with additional dollars directed toward homeless students and children with disabilities. About $40 billion has been provided to colleges and universities.
Another $39 billion was provided to support child care services. More than 150,000 providers serving more than 5 million children have received funding.
More than $245 billion has been distributed to state, local, area and tribal governments. Another $105 billion is planned to be distributed in May.
This pool of dollars for state and local governments has become one of the more controversial aspects of the rescue plan, with some critics arguing that it was unnecessary because state governments eventually saw double-digit growth in tax revenue.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny Said the money helped prevent essential services like firefighters and paramedics from being cut off.
“Imagine a grandpa in medical crisis waiting a few extra minutes to ask for help,” he said.
Without the money, Kenny said, “it would mean hundreds of layoffs of frontline city workers.”
Heidi Scherholz, who leads the Liberal Economic Policy Institute, said the legislation is “one of the main reasons we are in such an incredibly strong recovery right now.”
“I’m not saying it was perfect,” she said. “But it made it so that families didn’t need to go into penance.”
The rescue plan also provided nearly half of the funding for a $46.5 billion emergency rental assistance program, which began slowly as state and local officials struggled to roll out a new system from scratch.
However, the program accelerated last summer, disbursing more than $25 billion in 4.1 million payments. Treasury officials estimate that 80% of the money went to low-income tenants. The rest of the money is expected to be spent by the middle of this year.
Peter Hepburn, a research fellow in the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, said evictions in 2021 were about half as many as a typical year, suggesting that 1.36 million evictions were averted. Even though the nationwide eviction moratorium ended last summer, evictions were down 33.1% in January and 27.7% in February.
He called it an “excellent achievement”.
Sperling pointed to the rental assistance program as an example of how the rescue plan will pay dividends in the future because evictions are the kind of setbacks that can derail American families for years.
“Preventing serious harm is going to have serious benefits not only in the long-term economy but also in terms of basic human welfare and dignity,” he said.
director Joe Biden Wanted $1.9 trillion to help the country get out of the coronavirus crisis last year, and Democrats in Congress gave.
The American rescue plan was filled with funding to distribute rental assistance, tax exemptions, direct payments and vaccines that had just become available. less than two months later Biden After taking office, it was a hopeful sign that he might fulfill his campaign promise to get Washington’s often wood-cutting machinery working again.
But the law’s legacy is more complicated than it originally appeared. Depending on who is telling the story, this is either Biden’s first success or he has set a trap for himself.
It may well prove to be a bit of both.
Friday marks the anniversary of Biden’s signing of the US rescue plan, and the second anniversary of the World Health Organization’s announcement that the coronavirus had become a global pandemic. Looking back, administration officials defend the relief package as a necessary step to save the economy and spur a national rebound, and they point to historically low unemployment as evidence of their success. We do.
“Given how flexible and equitable the recovery is in the face of military conflict in Europe at Delta, O’Micron and now, this strategy already seems wise,” said Gene Sperling, a Biden adviser tapped to oversee the law’s implementation. .
A portion of the bill’s spending was devoted directly to combating the pandemic, including buying shots and treatments, supporting testing and vaccination sites, and treating people infected with the virus that has killed more than 959,000 people in the US Was.
The rest were intended to repel state and local governments, ease the pain of job losses, and put money in the American pocketbook.
Critics say the latter set of policies stoked consumer demand at a time when supply chains cannot keep up, with the need to implement generational changes such as expanded education programs, subsidized child care and financial incentives to fight. Democratic efforts dampened the momentum. Climate change.
“The gamble was that it would create a breakthrough that would make people want to do more,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former top economic adviser to the president. Barack Obama, “But it contributed to the inflation that people wanted to reduce.”
“In some ways, this is the biggest result,” he said. “It was a gamble, and they lost that gamble, and it hurt.”
Inflation was 7.9% over the past 12 months, the highest in four decades, and Furman estimated that the rescue plan accounted for about 2.5 percentage points.
Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the Conservative American Enterprise Institute, put the figure at 3 percentage points.
“We didn’t really need another stimulus. The economy was already booming,” Strain said, noting that the president Donald Trump The two measures totaling $3.1 trillion were signed before Biden took office.
Administration officials reject those inflation projections, pointing to a study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank that said the rescue plan contributed to less than 1 percent of the increase.
“The harsh reality is that almost every major economy in the world has high prices and supply chain shocks,” Sperling said.
However, inflation was paramount when Sen. Joe Manchin, DWA killed Democratic dreams of using his unified control of Washington to expand the social safety net. Biden argues that his agenda, known as “build back better”, will limit rather than increase prices.
“Inflation is real, it’s not going away anytime soon,” Manchin told Fox News Sunday in December.
The failure of that law also thwarted efforts to increase monthly child tax credit payments, starting with the rescue plan. An estimated $93 billion was sent to 40 million families with 65 million children last year.
Representative Pramila JayapaliD-Wash., said it has no regrets about any inflation that may have been caused by the law, describing it as a “result for which we have to work.”
“There’s no doubt that the American rescue plan put money in people’s pockets, kept businesses open, took shots at weapons and the kind needed to fix our economy,” said Jayapal, who presides over Congress Progressive. He did.” Caucus.
Biden is still trying to get his aspirations back on track. Emily Simmons, a White House spokeswoman, said the president “continues to work with Congress on his agenda to reduce kitchen table costs for American families — drug prices, childcare, energy costs, and more.” addressing.”
A year after the US rescue plan was signed, the federal government has spent nearly all of its direct COVID-19 aid, which boosted the supply of home tests, provided free virus treatment for the uninsured and sent overseas Paid for the dose of the vaccine given. Help prevent the emergence of more dangerous forms.
Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on television commercials, promotions and promotions raised marginalized vaccination rates, but proved no match for the misinformation and bias surrounding the life-saving shots. The US vaccination rate for adults is 75% lower than other large advanced economies.
Now the White House is pushing Congress to approve more money for antibody therapies, a preventive therapy for immunity, and to fund community testing sites.
“We need this money,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. “Without additional resources from Congress, the results are dire.”
The funding proposal could be the casualty of talks on a broad budget measure that needs to be passed by the end of the week to keep the federal government running.
The omicron wave of coronavirus infections is decreasing rapidly, but more than 1,100 people are still dying from the virus every day in the US. The vast majority are not vaccinated or enhanced.
Although the pandemic has lasted longer than Americans expected, America is much closer to its pre-pandemic normal, as mask-mandates are on their way across the country, with nearly all schools open for in-person learning and offices are starting will once again be filled with workers.
According to administration officials, along with the COVID funds, the rest of the rescue plan money has already flown out of the federal government’s doors.
More than 170 million direct payments to individuals, known as economic impact payments, of at least $400 billion were distributed. The median amount was $2,300.
Schools received $122 billion in relief, with additional dollars directed toward homeless students and children with disabilities. About $40 billion has been provided to colleges and universities.
Another $39 billion was provided to support child care services. More than 150,000 providers serving more than 5 million children have received funding.
More than $245 billion has been distributed to state, local, area and tribal governments. Another $105 billion is planned to be distributed in May.
This pool of dollars for state and local governments has become one of the more controversial aspects of the rescue plan, with some critics arguing that it was unnecessary because state governments eventually saw double-digit growth in tax revenue.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny Said the money helped prevent essential services like firefighters and paramedics from being cut off.
“Imagine a grandpa in medical crisis waiting a few extra minutes to ask for help,” he said.
Without the money, Kenny said, “it would mean hundreds of layoffs of frontline city workers.”
Heidi Scherholz, who leads the Liberal Economic Policy Institute, said the legislation is “one of the main reasons we are in such an incredibly strong recovery right now.”
“I’m not saying it was perfect,” she said. “But it made it so that families didn’t need to go into penance.”
The rescue plan also provided nearly half of the funding for a $46.5 billion emergency rental assistance program, which began slowly as state and local officials struggled to roll out a new system from scratch.
However, the program accelerated last summer, disbursing more than $25 billion in 4.1 million payments. Treasury officials estimate that 80% of the money went to low-income tenants. The rest of the money is expected to be spent by the middle of this year.
Peter Hepburn, a research fellow in the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, said evictions in 2021 were about half as many as a typical year, suggesting that 1.36 million evictions were averted. Even though the nationwide eviction moratorium ended last summer, evictions were down 33.1% in January and 27.7% in February.
He called it an “excellent achievement”.
Sperling pointed to the rental assistance program as an example of how the rescue plan will pay dividends in the future because evictions are the kind of setbacks that can derail American families for years.
“Preventing serious harm is going to have serious benefits not only in the long-term economy but also in terms of basic human welfare and dignity,” he said.