President Joe Biden speaks in the Cross Room of the White House on Feb. 22, 2021, the day the death toll from the Chinese Communist virus (Wuhan pneumonia) surpassed 500,000 nationwide.
On Wednesday (March 3), President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats reached an agreement on key provisions of the COVID-19 (Chinese Communist Virus) outbreak relief bill. The bill provides that unemployment benefits will remain at $400 through August for the duration of the outbreak, while eligibility thresholds for $1,400 checks paid directly to U.S. households will be tightened.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked at a March 3 briefing whether Biden had agreed to raise the eligibility threshold for the $1,400 check from $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for joint filers to $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for joint filers.
To which Psaki replied, “He is satisfied with the current status of negotiations.” She also said Biden was firm on the issue of the amount of the $1,400 bailout check, but “was willing to make changes at the margins of that package.”
Psaki said, “There have been negotiations between the parties involved to try to get the bailout check amount down to $1,000 or to change the size of the bailout check distribution – he’s unassailable on that issue.”
She added, “But he also knows that sausage makers sometimes spit out different flavors.” She also said Biden “wants all those with Democratic political affiliations to support” the current draft of the bailout bill.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, told Politico that he thinks Biden’s proposal is acceptable and does not intend to make any changes.
It would be a good program that would help a lot of people,” he said. It is targeted. Most importantly, it’s targeted to help those who need help.”
Meanwhile, Republicans denounced the $1.9 trillion Epidemic bailout plan, saying most of the spending provisions involved in those bailouts are unrelated to the epidemic. Republicans also slammed parts of the bill’s spending as a “liberal wish list.”
Just before the House passed the bill last week, House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, pointed to its extensive non-COVID-19 related spending, claiming it pandered to a “coalition of special interests” and declaring “The swamp is back,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said, “In reality, less than 9 percent of the money is going to fight the epidemic.” He claimed that Democrats themselves were “so embarrassed by all the non-epidemic waste in this bill that they chose to pass it in the dead of night.”
The bill was passed around 2 a.m. by a vote of 219 to 212, with all Republicans and two Democrats voting against it.
As the bailout package was set to go to the Senate floor for a vote on March 4, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio expressed support for McCarthy’s view and also argued that the bill was full of spending on priorities unrelated to the epidemic.
In a March 3 interview with Fox News, Rubio said, “I’m not going to be fooled, and we shouldn’t be forced to vote for something that doesn’t say what it says on the surface. Once this bill is passed and people see what’s in it, they’ll regret it.”
In a March 3 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate majority leader, dismissed Republican claims that the bailout was a “liberal wish list.
“This is a wish list for Americans,” Schumer said. “It’s not a liberal wish list when people need a check to help them get out of trouble. That’s what the American people want.”
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