President Biden is in an unusual position: the weaker the economy is viewed, the stronger the political arguments for his COVID-19 stimulus package.
The government seized a mediocre jobs report on Friday to claim that the full $ 1.9 trillion package Biden proposed is essential.
Biden painted the kind of gloomy picture most presidents would normally suppress when speaking in the State Dining Room in the White House on Friday.
“It is very clear that our economy is still in trouble,” he said.
He then outlined the “tremendous pain” in the country, which included not only high unemployment and 15 million people living behind rent, but also rising suicide rates and domestic violence.
Politically, the president’s calculation is clear. He will probably not be blamed for the current economic conditions as he has just taken office, and painting as dark a picture as possible explains the need for extensive action.
The Senate paved the way for a possible party-line vote on Biden’s stimulus measures in the early hours of Friday, when Vice President Harris cast the casting vote on crucial amendments.
In his comments Friday, Biden said, “I’d love to do it with the support of Republicans … but they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we should go.”
He later added, “What the Republicans have suggested is to do nothing or not do enough.”
Her. Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins Sanders criticizes Democrats willing to cut eligibility for stimulus checks Biden doubles from normal at White House The Memo: Bad Jobs Report Stimulates Biden Stimulus Case (Maine) and nine other GOP senators have filed a compromise bill with a price tag of about one-third of Biden’s proposal. Other Republicans have simply expressed opposition to Biden’s move, which they believe is greater than necessary.
Rachel Greszler, a research fellow at the Conservative Heritage Foundation, has written about the dangers she sees in raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. She said such a move would hit hardest in some of the industries already hardest hit by the pandemic, such as hotels, restaurants and clothing stores.
The likelihood that the $ 15 minimum wage will be introduced soon has fallen sharply. Sen. Joe Manchin
Joseph (Joe) ManchinSanders Criticizes Democrats Willing to Cut Eligibility for Stimulus Checks The Memo: Bad Jobs Report Stimulates Stimulus Case Biden Biden Expects Minimum Wage Hike Will Be Scrapped From Final Buyout Payment MORE (DW.Va.) has indicated that he would not support it, and even its strongest advocate, Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie SandersSanders criticizes Democrats who are willing to narrow the eligibility for incentive checks. Preview shows Sunday: Budget Resolution Clears Path to 0.9 Trillion Stimulus; Senate Prepares for Impeachment The Memo: Bad Jobs Report Boosts Biden’s Stimulus Case MORE (I-Vt.), Has accepted that it cannot happen immediately.
Still, conservatives like Greszler have general concerns about excessive government spending if a major stimulus measure is passed.
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 hasten a full reopening of the economy.
“The incentive bill they are talking about right now is not current or targeted, and is only used to throw a bunch of wishlist items into a package,” she claimed.
The skeptics’ case received unexpected assistance from Larry Summers, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and was a key economic adviser to President Obama.
In a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday, Summers essentially argued that the current proposal was too big.
Summers was optimistic in a way. Unemployment is falling and there is “likely to be further strengthening in demand,” he wrote.
The dangers, he argued, were that massive government spending could lead to inflationary pressures, leaving less money for other priorities later on.
Summers has always been viewed with disgust by progressives, who blame him, among other things, for continuing deregulation under Clinton and restraining Obama’s response to the Great Recession.
The White House had been pushed firmly against his latest intervention.
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein The Memo: Bad Jobs Report Stimulates Biden Stimulus Case Over 200 Obama Officials Sign Letter Supporting Biden’s Stimulus Plan Biden Economic Adviser Calls Summers ‘Downright Wrong’ With Inflation Comments MORE, a member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, said during a White House briefing Friday that Summers was “just wrong” to suggest the president doesn’t care about the threat of inflation.
When asked about Summers’ apparent belief that the Biden administration was too far-reaching in its proposal, Bernstein replied, “No, I would absolutely disagree with that statement. … We have to hit back hard, we have to hit back hard. “
Other liberal-leaning economists view it the same way.
“The Biden plan is deliberately exaggerated because, as I understand it, they think the economy has been too cold for a long time – since the Great Recession – and we need a period of very strong growth to repair the damage,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the left-wing Economic Policy Institute.
Bivens also objected to the idea that a major stimulus now would weaken Biden later from politics and literal capital. A public perception that the White House had effectively addressed current economic problems would “ bolster their pitch ” for subsequent action, Bivens argued.
There is a clear need for action among the Democrats, whether the Republicans like it or not.
Many on the left cite the Obama administration’s experience where they say the White House has made too many concessions in search of GOP collaboration that never materialized.
Even now, “I believe the Republicans have never seriously negotiated an economic recovery package,” said Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky.
“We’ve seen this playbook from before [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Republicans Try To Pummel Democrats Over School Reopenings GOP Blames White House Staff For Lack Of COVID-19 Emergency Aid The Memo: Bad Jobs Report Boosts Biden Stimulus Case [R-Ky.], ”Added Roginsky. “He knows very well that if the economy picks up in the next two years, he is more likely to take back the majority in the Senate.”
The Memo is a column by Niall Stanage.