BOSTON — Less than a week before taking the oath of office, President-Elect Joe Biden outlined his plans to help Americans recover from an economic crisis and a pandemic.
The $1.9 trillion plan includes direct payments to most Americans. Biden says he is proposing a rescue package and a recovery package.
The rescue plan includes $1,400 stimulus payments for individual Americans as well as a push to administer 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the first 100 days of his administration and a push to reopen schools across the country.
The recovery plan focuses on job creation with investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, and job training.
Each of these bills will go before a Congress that on Jan. 20 will be under the control of Democrats.
Biden doesn’t want to hit the ground running after his inauguration, he wants to instead get a head start.
Speaking from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware tonight, he has a lot he wants to accomplish and soon. Biden says come Wednesday, the country will begin a “new chapter.”
“We not only have an economic imperative to act now. I believe we have a moral obligation,” Biden said. “We will finish the job of getting a total of $2,000 and cash relief to people who need them most. The $600 already appropriated is simply not enough. One in seven households in America, more than one in five black and Latino households in America report they don’t have enough food to eat. This includes 30 million adults and as many as 12 million children. It’s wrong. It’s tragic. It’s unnecessary. It’s unacceptable.
If the bill gets through Congress, Biden’s stimulus plan will earmark $1 trillion in relief to families via direct payments and unemployment benefits, $440 billion to aid businesses and communities, particularly those owned by minorities and women.
It would also set aside $350 billion for state, local, and tribal communities and $160 billion in funding for vaccinations, COVID-19 testing, and other health programs
“You can do without punishing a single person by closing tax loopholes,” he said.
Biden also called for a national minimum wage of $15 per hour.
He says acting now is needed to build upon what Congress passed last month.
“I’m grateful for the Democrat-Republican independent members of Congress who came together to get it done, but I said at the time, it’s just a down payment,” Biden said.
Biden said he would unveil his vaccination plan tomorrow and even more portions of his plan next month when he addresses a joint session of Congress.
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