On Thursday, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his plans for economic rescue from the COVID crisis, explaining that the nation needs a more robust vaccination plan and additional direct payments to American families to help recover the economy.
The plan, called the American Rescue Plan, is expected to cost $1.9 trillion, according to NPR.
The payment package includes $1,400 direct stimulus checks. Biden also proposed an additional $160 billion for a national vaccine program.
He said, “It’s not hard to see that we are in the middle of a once-in-several generations economic crisis, with a once-in-several generations public health crisis. A crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight.”
“We have to act, and we have to act now,” Biden added. “We cannot afford inaction.”
His plan also calls on Congress to invest $170 billion in K-12 schools and higher education. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) praised Biden’s plan as taking “tangible actions for emergency relief.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten said, “We are grateful that someone is finally acting like a real president. Joe Biden is meeting the moment—a moment of deep national crisis, a worsening virus, a weakening economy, and a growing number of struggling Americans—with tangible actions for emergency relief.”
Biden has also proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and providing billions for childcare assistance, federal nutrition programs, rental assistance, and tribal governments’ pandemic response.
The virus has so far affected more than 23 million Americans, killing over 397,000. Many hospitals in the nation once again have reached crisis levels.
Biden has emphasized vaccinating as many Americans as possible. He plans to launch community vaccination centers and mobile vaccination units in remote areas, as well as increasing funding for more testing.
Furthermore, the president-elect said he will be urging the nation to wear facemasks for the first 100 days of his presidency.
Welcoming Biden’s economic rescue plan, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said, “Specifically, we applaud the President-elect’s focus on vaccinations and on economic sectors and families that continue to suffer as the pandemic rages on.”
Biden said, “I know what I just described does not come cheaply, but failure to [act] will cost us dearly. The consensus among leading economists is we simply cannot afford not to do what I’m proposing.” The article was published in NPR.
