WASHINGTON (AP) – A Congress torn by parties on Wednesday approved a $ 1.9 billion historic COVID-19 bill as President Joe Biden and Democrats claim a triumph over a government bill spending can combat a nation’s twin pandemic and economic crises.
The House approved the versatile final congress by a close party 220-211 vote exactly seven weeks after Biden entered the White House and four days after the Senate passed the bill. Republicans in both chambers unanimously opposed the bill, characterizing it as inflated, crammed with liberal policies and without attention to signs that the crises were easing.
“Help is here,” Biden tweeted moments after the call, which ended with applause from Democratic lawmakers. Biden said he would sign the measure Friday.
Most notable to many Americans are provisions that offer up to $ 1,400 direct payments to most adults this year, and the extension of $ 300 weekly emergency unemployment benefits until early September. But the legislation goes much further than that.
The measure is about the promises of the Democrats’ campaign and Biden’s first initial priority to facilitate a one-two-stroke that hit the country for the first time a year ago. Since then, many Americans have been relocated to hermit-like lifestyles to avoid a disease that has killed more than 525,000 people – across the population of Wichita, Kansas – and plunged the economy into the deepest depths since the Great Depression.
“Today we have a decision to make a huge impact,” said Nancy Pelosi, D-California. A decision that will make a difference for millions of Americans and save lives and livelihoods. ‘
For Biden and Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they have painted their convictions – that government programs can be a benefit to millions of people, not an obstacle, and that spending large sums on such efforts can be a cure-all be, not a curse. The measure monitors the Democrats’ priorities so closely that many consider it the best performance of their careers, and despite their slim majority in Congress, there has never been any real tension over its fate.
They are also empowered by three dynamics: their unlimited control over the White House and Congress, polls that show strong support for Biden’s approach, and a moment when most voters care little about rising national debt to a stratospheric $ 22. trillion. Neither party seems very concerned about the rising red ink, unless the other uses it to fund its priorities, whether democratic spending or tax cuts by the IDP.
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to oppose the measure. He said in a written statement that the spending of the account was not urgent.
Republicans noted that they overwhelmingly supported five previous bills passed by Congress since the pandemic hit a year ago when divided government under then-President Donald Trump forced the parties to negotiate. They said that this one only reflects the Democratic goals by setting aside money for family planning programs and federal workers taking leave to face COVID-19 and not requiring shutters that accept aid schools to reopen their doors.
‘If you’re a member of the swamp, you’re doing well under this bill. But for the American people, it means serious problems immediately on the horizon, “said Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House of Representatives, R-California, referring to the additional federal loan that the measure will force.
A predominant feature of the 628-page bill are initiatives that make it one of the largest federal efforts in years to assist low- and middle-income families. Included are extensive tax credits for next year for children, child care and family leave – some of which are credits the Democrats have indicated they want to make permanent – plus spending on tenants, nutrition programs and accounts for people.
Apart from the direct payments and the extension of unemployment benefits, the measure has hundreds of billions for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, schools, state and local governments and bad industries, from airlines to concert halls. There is help for farmers of color, pension systems and study learners, and subsidies for consumers who buy health insurance, and states that increase Medicaid coverage for lower earners.
“Who’s going to help? Are we saying this is all survival of the fittest? No, ”said John Yarmuth, chairman of the House Budget Committee, D-Ky. “We give the opportunity. We deliver. ”
The Independent Tax Policy Center emphasizes the focus of the bill and says the measure will give nearly 70% of its tax cuts to households earning $ 91,000 or less this year. In contrast, the Trump-era IDP tax bill gave nearly half of the 2018 cuts to the top 5% of households earning about $ 308,000, says the research center, which is run by the liberal-leaning Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
The measure was approved amid promising, though mixed signs of recovery.
Americans are being vaccinated at an increasingly strong rate, although this is being tempered by coronavirus variants and the growing impatience of people to curb social activities. The economy created unexpectedly strong 379,000 jobs last month, although there are 9.5 million fewer than before the pandemic.
Republicans said the country would pay a price for the extra spending.
“It’s definitely good politics to say, ‘Hey, we’ll give you a $ 1400 check,'” Rep. Tom Rice, RS.C. “But what they are not talking about is what this bill costs.”
A poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found last week that 70% of Americans support Biden’s response to the virus, including a solid 44% of Republicans. According to a CNN poll released Wednesday, 61% of Americans, including almost all Democrats, 58% of independents and 26% of Republicans, support it.
But until November 2022, when Senate and House control will be at stake, it will be uncertain whether voters will reward Democrats, punish them or make decisions on unforeseen issues.
The path of the bill underscored the challenges of the Democrats as they try to set a legislative record to appeal to voters.
Democrats control the Senate, split 50-50, just because Vice President Kamala Harris gives them the winning votes in bound films. They only have an advantage of ten votes in the House.
This is almost no place for a party ranging from Senator Joe Manchin on the Conservative side to progressive people like the rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York.
In the legal aid bill, progressive large concessions had to be swallowed to bolster moderate support.
The most painful was to eliminate the approved federal minimum wage increase to $ 15 per hour by 2025. Moderates are also succeeding in curtailing the unemployment benefits of unemployment, which in an earlier version was $ 400 a week, and completely deducting the $ 1,400 incentive tests for earners at lower levels than originally proposed.
At some point, it seems likely that progressive people will draw their own stripes in the sand.