Chief of Staff Ron Klain: White House hopes to revive Trump’s plan to mail masks to Americans

Chief of Staff Ron Klain: White House hopes to revive Trump’s plan to mail masks to Americans

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“It was an idea that really came up in the Trump administration last year – the public health authorities recommended it, President Trump vetoed it for some reason,” Klain told NBC’s Lester Holt. “We want to get it back on track. I hope we can announce some progress on this in the next few days, or next week.”

The Biden administration says the proposal is acceptable to the proposal, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, appeared to doubt whether sending American masks would necessarily convince those who had not yet worn it. When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week if it makes sense for the federal government to send masks to American households, she replied that ‘it’s not entirely clear to me that people do not wear masks because they do not have access. . to them. “

“I would definitely advocate those in areas where they do not have enough resources and cannot buy masks, or if they do not have access to masks. We need to make sure people have the protection,” Walensky continued. “But in my mind, it’s not entirely clear that the mask wearing challenge had access to a challenge.”

On Thursday, Klain again defended the government’s target of having 100 million people vaccinated for Covid-19 in the first 100 days, and Holt said that ‘we are trying to increase vaccine production and distribution of vaccines – we will have more to say about the targets that follow. ‘

President Joe Biden said last week that he expects the U.S. to soon be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day, which will increase the bar by about 500,000 more vaccinations than the target of 1 million a day in its first 100 days amp. He said the US could exceed the initial target in about three weeks.

Klain refuted Holt’s point that the Trump administration had succeeded in getting 1 million doses of vaccine administered per day, claiming that “the Trump administration struck a million shots per day out of 40.”

According to data from the CDC, vaccine administration hit 1 million a day for the first time on January 7, and although it hit rock bottom below and more than 1 million a day in the last two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, the trend line has clearly grown.
Klain also addressed negotiations on Biden’s $ 1.9 billion proposal for Covid relief against the Republicans of the Senate, which is much more modest, and stated that he is open to more targeted payment of emergency checks to families in need.

“A question has been raised as to whether or not these checks are for people who earn $ 200,000, $ 300,000,” Klain said. “I think if Congress has ideas on how to focus it on making sure working people, middle class people in this country get these checks, that’s fine with us.”

“What we are not going to do is leave out large sections of the middle class, and we are certainly not going to jeopardize the amount of these checks,” he added.

The IDP plan would offer $ 1,000 stimulus checks to those earning up to $ 40,000 a year, and would earn individuals earning more than $ 50,000 a year, and couples earning more than $ 100,000, according to a fact sheet provided by the office of Republican Senator Susan Collins. of Maine, who implemented the proposal Sunday along with nine other Republicans.
Under the Biden proposal, people earning less than $ 75,000 will receive $ 1,400 stimulus checks, doubling it for couples earning less than $ 150,000, and gradually phasing out payments. According to an analysis by the non-party tax foundation, it earns 99% of tax files earning between $ 77,100 and $ 110,700, while only 8% of applicants qualify under the IDP plan.

About 78% of families would be eligible for relief under the Republican proposal, while 95% would be eligible for Biden’s proposal, according to analysts at the Penn Wharton budget model, who warned that the figures are tentative because no formal legislation is not available. .

CNN’s Katie Lobosco and Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.

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