“We need more immediate help for families and small businesses, including finishing the $ 2,000 job helping people,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday. He expects to present his proposals on Thursday before taking office on January 20.
US President-elect Joe Biden called for trillions of dollars in additional immediate financial assistance, including an increase in direct payments, following the release of the worst monthly jobs report since April.
“We need more immediate help for families and small businesses, including finishing the $ 2,000 job helping people,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday. He expects to present his proposals on Thursday before taking office on January 20.
Biden’s comments follow the publication of a report showing that the U.S. job market lost jobs for the first time in eight months in December, reflecting a decline in restaurant jobs that showed how rising jobs are affecting parts of the coronavirus infections. economy.
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While Democrats will control both houses of Congress after Biden takes office, private economists predict that any new stimulus package will be several trillion dollars short. The 50-50 split in the Senate will make a more ambitious proposal difficult.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia moderate, said on Friday that if there is another round of direct payments to the people, “it must go to those who need it.” Initial reports that he was adamantly opposed to raising stimulus vouchers to $ 2,000 of the $ 600 approved in the December 19 covid-19 aid package sent stocks down on Friday, a sign of investor sensitivity. for news on the upcoming tax initiative.
Stocks fluctuate
Shares rebounded after Bloomberg reported that Manchin planned to review Biden’s proposals.
Future Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said this week that raising stimulus payments to $ 2,000 would be his first goal once the Democrats take control of the Senate.
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According to a report released by the Department of Labor on Friday, wages in non-farm businesses were 140,000 lower than in the previous month, although unlike last spring, the decline was concentrated in the leisure and hospitality sectors rather than in the sector. The unemployment rate remained at 6.7%, ending a series of seven consecutive declines.
“People are waiting for miles in their cars for a meal to be put on their family’s table,” Biden said at a news conference Friday.
The president-elect also called for a federal minimum wage of $ 15 an hour, another measure likely to meet with complicated political calculations.