What is stalling the US' stimulus package? Who is right?

Donald Trump has quite clearly failed and doesn't care at this point, and the Senate stalemate seems to be unable to do much else than kick the can further down the road; the nation’s recovery from COVID now lies in the hands of Joe Biden. Biden has himself said, "any package passed in lame-duck session is, at best, just a start" [1], and indeed Biden's whole campaign was based around pandemic recovery, and he has already announced a COVID-19 advisory board and outlined vague relief proposals. Meanwhile Trump is refusing financial aid for states and cities as a attempt to shirk culpability, caring about his legacy over the wellbeing of American's, while senate is focussing on the economy while pretending that it is completely divorced from whether people have jobs or households have money.

Biden's plan has already been reported to include stimulus cheques, small business support, enhanced unemployment benefits, better Social Security paycheques, and student loan forgiveness. Although it is currently not clear who will be eligible or how much checks will be for, it is expected to be a similar amount to the CARES act, with most single adults receiving $1,200, and more for families. Unlike Trump, Biden is seemingly willing to at least try to tackle bigger structural economic issues that are holding the US economy and US citizens (especially graduates) back, while attacking the economic hardships that COVID-19 will leave the country with.

Trump on the other hand continues to actively risk people’s safety over his legacy. If he can claim retrospectively to have given freedom to states he can blame them for any perceived shortcomings in the future and deflect his obviously failure surrounding the handling of the pandemic. At this point his actions surrounding the pandemic, much like this election lawsuits, seem performative, and this effort to stall financial aid at the state level is complicating the economic recovery and truly damaging to the majority of US citizens.

[1] cnet.com/personal-finance/president-elect-bidens-2021-stimulus-plan-will-you-get-a-second-check-or-not heavy.com/news/2020/08/covid-19-stimulus-checks-other-countries newsweek.com/heres-how-us-coronavirus-stimulus-package-compares-other-countries-around-world-1497360 aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/16/congress-nears-900bn-covid-bill-with-stimulus-checks-reports

The initial relief package, proposed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, offered a $600 stimulus check per person to every family, but included only minimal unemployment benefits, Democrats initially refused this deal based on the lack of federal unemployment benefits. The original bipartisan effort at breaking this stalemate was a $908 billion compromise, which was then called out by progressive senators and representatives, and even Trump, for not including direct payments that are so popular both in the US and internationally. However as the Senate creeps ever closer to finalising a deal this number has been whittled down to $900 billion, still leaving the most vulnerable behind and favouring the economy over them.

This comes at a time when even bank CEOs are speaking of the urgent economic need for another direct stimulus package, but the main sticking point remains over how much of this economic stimulus should go directly into protecting people versus protecting businesses. Republican senators are stalling negotiations holding out for protections on businesses and the private sector above the safety and wellbeing of citizens, and the most vulnerable that have permanently lost work during the pandemic. Seen as though this is taking place in the week before Christmas 2020, the Republicans truly are the living embodiment of Ebenezer Scrooge.

news.yahoo.com/mitch-mcconnell-trashed-democrats-holding-183047179.html businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-jpmorgan-stimulus-remote-work-ppp-ceo-office-chase-2020-12 msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-for-stimulus-checks-right-now-amid-progressive-push-for-direct-relief/ar-BB1bTPDh washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/09/congress-spending-economic-stimulus

Republican lawmakers have argued that the Democratic Party’s plan will end up throwing money at the people who do not need it, and a refusing to go beyond $908 billion in economic stimulus. The US faces an unstable economic future post-pandemic and being reckless with government spending at this time may plunging the whole economy into a longer depression moving forward. Both sides of the Senate cannot agree on the method of getting stimulus checks to people either, as the many Republican lawmakers dislike the direct payments that have previously been used, as again they are costly and send too much aid to people who do not need it. There are other major issues that the Republicans quite rightly hold as a major red lines also, the issue of a legal liability shield to protect businesses against unwarranted lawsuits and the issue of tying stimulus checks to COVID vaccinations. Republicans are clearly determined to protect American businesses and freedoms moving forward.

aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/9/stimulus-mess-house-set-to-pass-1-week-govt-funding-bill latest-today-news.com/2020/12/08/democrat-proposes-tying-1500-stimulus-checks-to-covid-vaccinations