Republican COVID Relief Plan Excludes Biden Priorities

Washington, Feb 1 (AFP/APP): US President Joe Biden will on Monday meet with a group of Republican senators who have proposed an alternative to his massive Covid-19 relief plan, but their measure excludes key programs Democrats consider essential.

Biden, who campaigned on restoring bipartisanship in Washington, has proposed spending $1.9 trillion to revitalize the world’s largest economy after the pandemic caused waves of layoffs last year, but Republicans in Congress have said they won’t support such a large package.

On Sunday, a group of 10 Republicans unveiled a measure costing $600 billion, and Biden is set to meet with them later on Monday. But an outline of the bill shows it excludes aid to state and local governments that Democrats say any package must have, and also lowers the amount of stimulus checks to $1,000 from the $1,400 Biden has proposed, while also tightening eligibility. The proposal, as written, is unlikely to find support from lawmakers in Biden’s Democratic party, and the president on Monday continued to promote his plan.

“We’re facing an economic crisis brought on by a public health crisis, and we need urgent action to combat both,” Biden tweeted. “My American Rescue Plan will dig us out of the depths of these crises and put our nation on a path to build back better.”

In a sign of the economy’s ill health, the government last week said that the number of new applications for unemployment aid received weekly was at 1.3 million, an enormous number 10 months after business shutdowns to stop the virus first began.

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