Alternative proposal to Biden: Senators want a smaller stimulus package

Sunday 31st January 2021

Alternative proposal to Biden
Senators want a smaller stimulus package

To get the Corona crisis under control, the new US President Biden has announced a comprehensive stimulus package. But there is still disagreement in Congress about its amount. Republican senators are now making an offer to Biden, which is probably much tighter.

In the dispute over US President Joe Biden's new economic stimulus package in the corona crisis, ten Republican senators have submitted an alternative proposal. In a recently published letter from the senators to Biden, it was said that they were ready to work together and that their plan had been drawn up "in the spirit of non-partisanship and unity".

This also includes the funds proposed by Biden of 160 billion dollars, which are to be used, among other things, for the development and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the overall scope of the plan is likely to be far below Biden's plans. Biden's stimulus package provides for a volume of around 1.9 trillion US dollars (just under 1.6 trillion euros). No grand total is given in the senators' letter. The broadcaster CNN reported, however, that the amount is estimated to be between 500 and 600 billion US dollars.

Biden applies pressure

Senator Rob Portman – who is one of the signatories – merely told CNN that the cost was "less than $ 1.9 trillion". White House Economic Council director Brian Deese told the broadcaster that the Senators' proposal would be considered. The White House said Biden is calling on Congress to pass its "American rescue plan" immediately.

In order to get his plans through, Biden is dependent on Congress. The package he proposed would correspond to almost ten percent of US economic output. In their letter, the ten Republican senators point out that billions of dollars have not yet been spent from previous aid packages. The last time Congress passed an aid package worth around 900 billion dollars at the end of December.

Immediately after the corona pandemic escalated in the USA, Congress had already approved economic stimulus packages worth almost three trillion dollars last spring. The US economy continues to suffer from the Corona crisis. The official unemployment rate is 6.7 percent; before the crisis it was 3.5 percent. Last year, economic output shrank by 3.5 percent – it was the sharpest decline since 1946.