Paula Lugones
03/10/2021 4:16 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 03/10/2021 16:30
The United States Congress approved this Wednesday another multimillion-dollar aid package to different sectors affected by the Covid19 crisis,
a stimulus program that among its main measures allocates $ 1,400 to each American.
President Joe Biden thus won a resounding legislative victory at the beginning of his term with a plan that has popular and business support and that Republicans consider "leftist."
The House of Representatives voted in favor of the program, which had already been approved by the Senate.
The law embodies many of the Democratic campaign promises to defeat
the coronavirus pandemic and revive a damaged economy.
Republicans, for their part, rejected the package in both houses because they considered that it raised public spending too much, that it was full of "leftist" measures and that they did not consider that the worst of the crisis is already subsiding.
The ambitious package of measures was approved
by 220 votes to 211
, which marks a total polarization between the Democratic ruling party and the Republican opposition.
It is focused on benefiting low and middle income families.
It includes expanded tax credits for children, child care and family leave
, as well as subsidies for renters, food programs, and utility bills.
Nancy Pelosy, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives.
AFP photo
The package
provides $ 1,400 in direct payments
to most citizens, a measure that had already been adopted in a first stimulus package during the presidency of Donald Trump and had caused controversy because, in an election year, the checks had been delayed a few days to place the president's signature.
It also includes a tax benefit of up to $ 3,600 per year per child.
The program includes
emergency aid for unemployment
and hundreds of billions to buy and distribute Covid19 vaccines and treatments.
In addition, it provides aid to schools, state and local governments and weakened sectors, from airlines to concert halls.
It also provides assistance to farmers (the majority of Latino origin), subsidies for the purchase of health insurance, and for states expanding state insurance for the low-income.
Against the crisis
With this program, Biden and the Democrats seek to show that government programs can be beneficial to millions of people and that spending large sums of money is a way out of the economic crisis through stimulus and
not a populist waste,
as they consider Republicans.
"It is a remarkable, historic, transformative piece of legislation,
a breakthrough in squashing the virus and solving our economic crisis," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
Republicans disagree: "It's a laundry list of leftist priorities," said Opposition Representative Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Democrats pushed through this package after several weeks of discussion, thanks to the fact that they have a majority in the lower house and also in the Senate (they are tied there, but Vice President Kamala Harris tips the balance).
In addition, the package is supported by Americans and the business sector:
61% of Americans favor the plan -
according to a CNN poll - and 73% of CEOs and leaders of major companies do. support, according to a poll by the Yale CEO Caucus, even though the national debt rises to $ 22 trillion.
In the United States, the number of coronavirus cases is
around 29 million and deaths reach 528,000.
The peak has already been overcome and infections and deaths are decreasing at the rate of vaccination.
There are already 93 million vaccines administered (Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) and about 10% of the population has already received two doses.
In some states, like Alaska, 16-year-olds are already vaccinated.
But Biden seeks to speed up the process even further and thus fulfill his promise that all adults will be immunized by the end of May.
Today it will announce the purchase of
another 100 million doses
of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, in a single application.
Now that it has been approved, Biden will be dedicated to promoting his political triumph and the benefits of his stimulus plan to the population, with conferences and events in various states of the country where he will discuss the details of the measure.
His advisers say it will be a communication campaign similar to that of an electoral campaign.
They do not want to repeat what they consider a mistake by the Barack Obama presidency:
his 2009 stimulus plan
, Democrats say, was widely criticized by Republicans and was not sufficiently recognized by citizens as the great architect of the exit from the crisis 2008.
PB
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