The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a budget resolution that would pave the way for President Joe Biden’s 1.9 billion coronavirus stimulus bill to pass by a majority vote.
While the budget resolution would trigger a procedure known as reconciliation, Democrats in Congress could pass the stimulus without Republican votes, Biden and Democrats who met with the president on Wednesday said they still want a GOP purchase. gain.
“While he supports two parties, he also understands the urgent need to do so,” U.S. Senator Robert Menendez told NJ Advance Media after a 90-minute meeting with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic committee chairmen of the Senate like him. “Yes, we want Republicans, but not at the expense of something big and fat.”
A compromise area could be to reduce the $ 1,400 incentive payments back. Under the current proposal, some families earning more than $ 400,000 can get a check.
“Further target does not mean the size of the check, it means the income level of people who receive the check, and that is something that has been discussed,” said White House spokesman Jen Psaki. “There has been no conclusion yet, but he can certainly lead the discussion.”
U.S. Senator Chris Coons said the topic came during an hour-long meeting with fellow Democrat senators Delaware, Tom Carper and Biden, who had previously represented the state in the Senate.
“We did have a discussion about the direct payments and how it can change in a way to ensure that it is targeted, but President Biden was clear with us and with our caucus that he is not going to forget the middle class,” said Coons.
“He is not going to step back from a real commitment he has made, not only in Georgia but also nationally, to provide purposeful relief to the Americans who are most in need.”
Psaki said she expects changes to the bill before Biden signs it.
“The president, who has served 36 years in the Senate, fully acknowledges that the bill he proposed, that he made his first speech two weeks ago, may not look exactly like the bill that came out,” he said. she told her on Wednesday. daily personal information session.
One possible compromise would be to earn only the full amount of $ 1400 to individuals earning no more than $ 50,000 and married couples earning no more than $ 100,000, reports the Washington Post. The current proposal sets the thresholds at $ 75,000 for individuals and $ 150,000 for couples.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that 78% of Americans support $ 1,400 in stimulus payments, with only 18% in opposition. Republicans support the direct payments, 64% to 32%.
“U.S. households have struggled to pay the bills and need them now,” said Quinnipiac analyst Tim Malloy. “So give it to them, is the resounding judgment of the public.”
The poll among 1,075 U.S. adults is from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 and has an error margin of +/- 3 percentage points.
Biden has already rejected a proposal by ten Senate Republicans to shave the package by more than two-thirds to $ 618 billion.
Democrats continue to bear the scars from 2009, when their stimulus bill was scaled back in response to the Great Recession to attract Republican support. Biden was vice president at the time, and limited spending led to a lower recovery.
“History teaches us that failure to do more causes more economic pain,” Menendez said.
The IDP package also stripped Biden of its $ 350 billion federal aid proposal to help state and local governments pay the salaries of health workers, teachers and other public employees. Menendez calls the money an ‘absolute necessity’ and Coons calls every attempt to give a bill without state and local aid a ‘nonstarter’.
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The mood of the House, mainly along party lines, was 218-212. The Senate plans to discuss the bill from Thursday.
Congressional Republicans have complained that the stimulus would increase the deficit, even though they used the same process in 2017 to pass a tax law that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would increase the deficit by the same $ 1.9 billion as Biden’s proposal.
Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the leading Republican on the House Budget Committee, used the debate to address the government of Phil Murphy and New Jersey in response to Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th District. “Deliver brave relief to the American people” and “deserve strong two-party support here in the House.”
Smith said New Jersey had received $ 9.5 billion in “taxpayers’ lifeline” and would receive another $ 9.5 billion under the incentive plan.
“The same government has introduced closure policies that have directly led to the closure of more than 3,000 small businesses. The state has, unfortunately, the highest per capita death rate of all states,” he said.
Since New Jersey was hit hardest at the start of the pandemic, it is true that the death rate from coronavirus is still the highest in the country. And it’s true that about one-third of the state’s small businesses have closed.
“New Jersey is the densest state in the country and was one of the earliest states affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Murphy spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro said. “Since the pandemic began, Governor Murphy has taken decisive steps to protect the lives of as many New Jersey residents as possible, while also mitigating restrictions in a responsible manner and ensuring economic health for our state.”
In addition, under the CARES Act, New Jersey received only $ 2.4 billion and would have received $ 8 billion under the stimulus bill proposed in December until state and local aid were deprived of the final bill.
Smith did not respond to a request for comment on how he came up with the figures.
In 2019, his state of Missouri received $ 23.6 billion more from Washington than he paid in federal taxes, the 14th highest of the 50 states, while New Jersey received $ 10.3 billion less, which was in 49th place. , according to New York State University’s Rockefeller Institute of Government. .
Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant.
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