There has been a lot of talk about this Larry Summers op-ed advising the Biden administration to make the COVID relief program smaller and there was an initial impression that the White House was listening.
They are not. They sent out Jared Bernstein to throw cold water on it and then former Summers associate Gene Sperling went out to do the same thing.
Then Biden weighed in:
Biden: “A lot of folks are losing hope … So I’m going to act and I’m going to act fast. I would like to be doing it with the support of Republicans … but they’re just not willing to go as far as we have to go.”
“There is simply nothing more important than us getting the resources we need to vaccine the people in this country. As soon, as quickly as possible.” — Biden
Biden: “So the way I see it is the biggest risk is not going too big, it’s if we go too small … all of the sudden, many [Republicans] have rediscovered fiscal restraint.”
Originally tweeted by Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) on February 5, 2021.
As Ryan Grim pointed out in the Intercept, they seem to have learned the lesson of 2009. That’s a good thing since the lesson of 2009 is to eschew the weirdos preaching austerity in a time of crisis and follow standard Keynesian economics. Huzzah.