With a party-line vote of 50-49, the US Senate on Saturday, March 6, 2021, passed President Joe Biden’s stimulus bill. The package, which is worth a sweeping $1.9 trillion, passed through the House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, and the Head of State signed it into law the next day on Thursday, March 11, 2021. The package addresses the ongoing crisis’s economic effects while simultaneously tackling poverty-related issues (Kaplan). Its impact on society would be far-reaching as the nation navigates through the difficulties of a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans (Kaplan). It is the second time during the coronavirus epidemic that the US government is enacting a law to protect its citizens economically. The first time it did so was in 2020 during the Trump administration. Biden’s Stimulus Package is his first major policy as US President. I support the new law because it extends jobless benefits, offers direct payments to individuals, gives financial assistance to state and local governments, presents monetary aid to schools, and provides funding for coronavirus-related priorities.
The first reason I support the American Rescue Plan is that it extends jobless benefits to Americans. It keeps the weekly enhancement on unemployment assistance at $300 until May 1, 2021 (Liu). The aid, which arrives in April, is an ambitious antipoverty program that will help individuals cope with the current financial difficulties caused by the ongoing health crisis. President Biden’s Economic Rescue Plan also extends some programs within the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020, by President Donald Trump, until early September 2021 (Liu). These programs include Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) (Liu). The extension of both programs will provide much-needed assistance to gig workers, the long-term jobless individuals, and people who were traditionally ineligible for financial aid. Thus, the new law will cushion all Americans, particularly those without a stable income, from the pandemic’s harsh effects while at the same time preventing the American economy from crumbling.
The new legislation will also provide direct payments to individuals through the US, and this is the second reason why I support it strongly. Working-class families in the US will cumulatively receive one trillion dollars due to unsatisfactory job trends, which is more than 50 percent of the entire Rescue Plan amount (Liu). Thus, the majority of the money will go directly to families as financial assistance from the government. The US Job Report for January 2021, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reveals that the current job market is characterized by modest job growth despite falling unemployment rates (Pickert). It is the second month in a row that the report bears disappointing economic news. The direct payments to families are timely as they might help reverse these negative trends. The tax waiver on the initial $10,200 of unemployment benefits is great news for individuals making less than $150,000 annually, as reflected in their 2020 tax filings (Liu). Couples earning less than $150,000 per year will receive up to $20,000 of unemployment insurance benefits (Liu). The program has the best interest of Americans at heart, which is why I am supporting it.
State and local governments will get substantial financial assistance courtesy of President Biden’s Rescue Plan, which is the third strong reason I support the new law. In total, states and local governments will receive about $350 billion out of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 Stimulus Package (Davison). The money sent to state and local governments will boost their financial standing by addressing current deficits and aid small businesses lacking access to market capital. States and local governments are experiencing financial deficits because the ongoing health crisis significantly impacted small and medium enterprises. It is these businesses that have been remitting most of the taxes that have sustained the local and state governments. The $350 billion from the government will help local and state governments meet recurrent expenditure, fund the ongoing projects, and create and implement better policies (Davison). In the long-run, these improved rules and regulations will help the locals and stabilize the general economy.
My fifth reason for supporting the new legislation is that it provides financial aid to schools across the country to accelerate their re-opening plans and full-time in-person instruction. The new law allocates $10 billion to schools to expand their abilities to test students, staff, and visitors for COVID-19 (Richards and Alltucker). In total, K-12 schools will receive $122 billion to accelerate return to normalcy (Richard and Alltucker). The Rescue Plan Act of 2021 also gives higher education $40 billion to combat COVID-19 and related effects. Another $7.6 billion from the Stimulus Package will help homeless children, or those with special needs, to make necessary adjustments. Schools in each state can use their share of the $122 billion to improve buildings (to facilitate social distancing), buy protective equipment, hire additional members of staff, install more WI-FI hotspots, or develop additional learning opportunities (such as summer school) to help students recover lost time (Richard and Alltucker). How schools use the money will vary depending on their unique needs and specific circumstances.
Part of the Stimulus Package will also go to coronavirus-related priorities such as mass testing and vaccine distribution, which is the sixth reason I support it. Out of the $1.9 trillion, $400 billion will address the COVID-19 pandemic directly through mass testing and vaccine distribution (Kaplan). The money will help in infrastructure development to speed up the distribution of the vaccine. Without a doubt, one way to a faster return to normalcy is to vaccinate everyone, which can only happen if there is a proper infrastructure for vaccine distribution and mapping of the immunization progress. Once people are immune to the disease, they can return to their normal lives and businesses and commence sustainable economic growth. Full recovery will take a while, but the time could reduce with government intervention (Davison). The current Stimulus Plan only temporarily cushions Americans and places them in a better situation to chart the way forward. Notably, the country needs a more sustainable plan that encourages increased economic activity rather than simply cushioning people. The President has promised to release such a plan in the coming months.
Perhaps the only problem with Biden’s Rescue Package is that it does not outline how or who will pay for the huge amount. Typically, the government could pay for it by borrowing, printing more cash, or raise taxes. Borrowing is a popular way of raising funds globally, but its downside is that loans are expensive in the long-run. Letting the Federal Reserve print more money could work, but it runs the risk of causing inflation and the US dollar’s devaluation over other major currencies. Lastly, the option to raise taxes to cover the spending would seem imprudent as it could burden people who are already financially devastated by the pandemic. The alternative taxing mechanism excludes the poor and focuses on the wealthy, corporate organizations, and “public bads” such as pollution (Kaplan). Joe Biden’s administration should clarify to the public what funding source it intends to use to help them prepare adequately. People can only support and encourage the implementation of what they understand fully.
I support the Biden administration’s Stimulus Package because it is a desirable public policy and an ambitious anti-poverty program. It will help individuals, states, local governments, and learning institutions cope with the pandemic as the government prepares a more lasting solution (Kaplan). It also cushions the unemployed from the effects of COVID-19 and provides a roadmap towards recovery. The only problem with the policy is that it does not show how the government intends to raise the budgeted money. The direct payments it makes to individuals will improve their financial situation and help them survive the pandemic. Some of the resources will help state and local governments meet their budgetary deficits, complete ongoing projects, and implement new ones. The money will also make schools better prepared to improve learning by providing them the resources they need for testing students and staff, buying personal protective equipment, and improving existing buildings. It will also help schools to offer remedial studies when possible to help students catch up academically. The law is almost perfect, but the administration must follow it up with a more comprehensive long plan.
Works Cited
Davison, Laura. “Here Are the Major Parts of the $1.9 Trillion Biden Relief Plan (1).” Bloomberg Law, 2021, Web.
Kaplan, Thomas. “What’s in the Stimulus Bill? A Guide to Where the $1.9 Trillion Is Going.” The New York Times, Web.
Liu, Jennifer. “Biden signs $1.9 trillion stimulus package — here’s what it includes for unemployment.” CNBC, Web.
Pickert, Reade. “U.S. Jobs Report Disappoints Even as Unemployment Rate Falls.” Bloomberg, Web.
Richards, Erin and Ken Alltucker. “Biden sends $10 billion to schools for COVID testing as part of largest K-12 federal funding push.” US Today, Web.