Whew. The COVID Relief Plan passed the Senate. If things go well, the bill will sail through final passage and Biden will sign it shortly.
It is imperfect. The loss of the $15.00 minimum wage is a blow but maybe there will be a possible compromise down the road. But what is left in it is extremely impressive:
Still kind of stunned and heartened at the scale of the American Rescue Plan.
The 2009 stimulus was 5.5% of 2008 GDP.
The Rescue plan is 9.1% of 2020 GDP.
And it creates a child allowance that will (knock wood) be very hard to roll back.
It’s also remarkable, even after the drama of the last few days, how little Biden had to backtrack.
He proposed a $1.9 trillion package, and both houses of Congress passed a $1.9 trillion package.
Anyway this is the best thing I can remember happening in American policy since, at least, Obergefell, or maybe the ACA, so I think people should celebrate a little/a lot tonight.
When he’s right he’s right
Anyway I’ll quit babbling, read @liszhou:
And @EmilyStewartM on why this is such a BFD:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/6/22313466/covid-stimulus-package-passes-unemployment
Originally tweeted by dylan matthews (@dylanmatt) on March 6, 2021.
It’s a BFD. I wouldn’t have bet on the Democrats ability to pass a 1.9 trillion dollar bill. And I never would have guessed that the Republicans would spend all their time rending their garments over Dr Seuss and Mr. Potatohead instead of ranting about Big Gummint and spending.
Times have changed. We have a lot of difficult challenges ahead, some more threatening than anything we’ve faced. But at least we aren’t singing that tired old tune.
By the way:
Joe Biden is enjoying an early presidential honeymoon, with 60% of Americans approving of his job performance thus far and even more backing his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
At a moment of deep political polarization in America, support for Biden’s pandemic response extends across party lines. Overall, 70% of Americans back the Democratic president’s handling of the virus response, including 44% of Republicans.
