President-elect Joe Biden has proposed a much needed $1.9tn (£1.4tn) stimulus that will help US economy from the financial effect of Coronavirus before he takes office next week.
If passed by the US Congress there will be a relief package that would include $1tn (£736Bn) for households, with direct payments of $1,400 (£1.03K) to all Americans. The proposal includes $415bn to fight the virus and $440bn for small businesses.
Mr Biden, a Democrat, has promised to beat the pandemic that has killed more than 385,000 people in the US. He vowed last year to do a better job than the outgoing President, Donald Trump. His proposal comes as a surge of the coronavirus broke records during the Winter period.
Each day brings well over 200,000 new cases in the US and the daily death toll sometimes tops 4,000.
Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” will require approval both from the House and Senate. He’ll return in February, in his first address to Congress, to ask for additional infrastructure spending.
“I know what I just described does not come cheaply,” Biden said. “But failure to do so will cost us dearly.”
Biden has previousy identified COVID-19 and its economic effects as the two biggest problems Americans are currently facing. In his first pre-inaugura speech he highlisted a need for money to tackle the pandemic, “Next week, we’ll take action to extend nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures,” he said.
His spending proposal will be divided into three parts:
- $400 billion to address the virus.
- $1 trillion in direct relief to families and individuals.
- $440 billion to help communities and businesses hit the hardest by the pandemic.
What this money will offer :
- An extra $1,400 of payments in addition to $600 for $2,000 in overall relief.
- Raising unemployment insurance from $300 to $400 per week, and extending it through September.
- Roughly $20 billion for a national vaccination program, and another $140 billion for testing and other public health investments.
- Fourteen weeks of paid leave for caregivers, payable to those coping with school closures and caring for people with COVID-19 symptoms.
- Raising the national minimum wage to $15 per hour, and abolishing the tipped minimum wage and the sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities.
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