The Week - USA (2021-02-12)

AP

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... and how they were covered NEWS 5

What happened

Senate Democrats took the first step this

week toward passing President Biden’s

$1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill with-

out GOP support, drawing complaints

from Republicans who accused Biden of

abandoning his promise of “unity.” A

party-line vote of 50-49 kick-started the

budget reconciliation process—which

would circumvent a GOP filibuster—just

a day after 10 Republican senators visited

the White House to pitch their $618 bil-

lion counterproposal. Biden’s plan would

allocate $160 billion for vaccination

efforts, $165 billion to help schools and

colleges reopen, and $350 billion to hard-hit cities and states, and

would send $1,400 checks to Americans making up to $75,000 a

year. With enhanced federal unemployment benefits set to expire

in mid-March, Biden would increase those weekly payments from

$300 to $400 and extend them through September. The GOP plan

includes no aid for states, maintains unemployment benefits at $

through June, and scales back stimulus checks to $1,000 an adult—

targeted at those who earn less than $50,000 a year.

Biden said the GOP’s offer “was not even in the cards.” But with

Congress having already allocated about $4 trillion to pandemic

relief, some moderate Democrats encouraged Biden to narrow the

bill’s focus and nix a proposed $15 federal minimum wage. With

about 850,000 new unemployment claims being filed a week,

Biden vowed not to repeat mistakes made in the wake of the 2008

financial crisis, when President Obama agreed to Republican de-

mands and shrank his stimulus package below $800 billion. Many

economists believe a larger stimulus bill would have accelerated the

recovery. “The risk is not doing too much,” Biden said. “The risk is

not doing enough.”

What the editorials said

Unity doesn’t mean “caving to Republican demands,” said the Los

Angeles Times. Biden is still open to negotiating the bill’s price tag,

but Republicans must understand that the threat of bankruptcy

for many small businesses and “a looming wave of evictions and

foreclosures” require urgent and massive action. And if there’s no

breakthrough, reconciliation is a perfectly legitimate way to deliver

that desperately needed aid. Remember that Senate Republicans

used the tool to ram through tax cuts that

benefited mostly wealthy Americans.

But a plan that genuinely unites the

country is within reach, said Bloomberg

.com. With 10 Republicans at the

negotiating table, Biden potentially

has a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Demo-

crats should see where talks lead. The

$1.9 trillion proposal can “afford to

be trimmed,” especially the “extremely

wasteful” stimulus checks, many of

which will end up in the savings accounts

of middle-class Americans. Directing the

checks toward households that are truly

struggling would stimulate the economy while saving billions.

What the columnists said

Biden wants to apply 2009’s lessons to entirely new challenges, said

James Freeman in The Wall Street Journal. Unlike at the outset

of the Obama presidency, today’s economy “is not in need of a

rescue.” The Commerce Department reported last week that real

gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 4 percent

in the final quarter of 2020, after “the historic 33.4 percent surge

in the third quarter.” Biden’s spending plans are unnecessary and

potentially dangerous “for an economy in which federal debt now

exceeds GDP.”

Most Democrats have a simple answer to Republicans who don’t

like Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan, said Jonathan Allen in NBCNews

.com: “Screw ’em.” But bipartisanship has some big advantages. It

would mean that some Republicans “have to sell the benefits of the

law to the public,” making it more popular and sustainable. At the

same time, it’s “difficult for the minority party to make political hay

out of a bill” supported by both sides. That will help Biden and the

Democrats come the 2022 midterms.

Trimmed ambitions won’t necessarily stave off midterm losses, said

Greg Sargent in WashingtonPost.com. GOP operatives are already

boasting about plans “to ramp up efforts to gerrymander House

districts during this year’s decennial redistricting.” And if Demo-

crats do lose the House in 2022, then Biden’s agenda is dead. With

the clock ticking down, the president and the Democrats must “do

as much as they can right now, with or without Republicans.”

GOP senators make their pitch at the White House.

Democrats push ahead with $1.9 trillion relief bill

It wasn’t all bad QOregon health-care workers were on their way to the town

of Grants Pass to administer leftover vaccine shots when

a snowstorm stopped them in their tracks. With a precious

vial of vaccine in their hands that was set to expire in six

hours, they knew they wouldn’t make it to their destination

in time. So workers went

car to car asking stranded

drivers if they wanted to

receive a shot. “We had

one individual who was

so happy, he took his shirt

off and jumped out of the

car,” said Michael Weber,

Josephine County’s public-

health director. All six doses

found takers. “Our No. 1

rule right now is nothing

gets wasted,” said Weber.

QJennifer Carl has been reunited

with her lost cat Willow, thanks to

New Jersey neighbors and a profes-

sional pet finder. Carl’s car was stolen

outside of a gas station in Harrison,

N.J., along with all her belongings

and Willow. Carl went to a psychic

and pet finder, Nancy Mello, who

suggested a nonmystical social me-

dia campaign, which was picked up

by a newspaper and TV station. The

stolen car was found near Newark,

N.J., and a day later police got a call

from a person who found Carl’s pink

cat carrier. Volunteers converged on

the neighborhood, setting out treats

of sardines and salmon, and found

Willow roaming in a nearby backyard.

QA mail carrier’s observant eye

and quick actions saved a life.

Shonda Lemon has developed

close relationships with the people

on her route in Chicago’s Dunning

neighborhood, including 89-year-

old Helen. One day, Lemon grew

concerned when she noticed Helen

hadn’t picked up her mail in three

days. She called 911 when there was

no response at the door, and Helen

was found injured and sprawled

on the floor, still breathing. Helen is

now recovering. “I just look at my-

self as one of God’s children looking

after his other kids,” Lemon said. A shot in a snowstorm