Spend ‘big,’ Biden says in push for massive economic package

MILWAUKEE: President Joe Biden sidestepped a divided Congress and went straight to the nation on Tuesday with a primetime televised town hall in Wisconsin seeking support for his $1.9 trillion economic rescue package.

“Now is the time we should spending. Now is the time to go big,” Biden told the live CNN audience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With lawmakers reeling from the aftermath of Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal, Biden used his first official trip away from Washington as president to address ordinary voters.

His stimulus package would more than double the previous measure passed by Congress, after intense debate, in December.

The administration says massive injections of money, including $1,400 checks sent to many Americans, are vital to preventing a sluggish economic recovery from stalling altogether. Another major goal of the spending spree is to boost the Covid-19 vaccine rollout—a logistical, medical and financial challenge upon which Biden’s entire first term may hang.

But the stimulus bill’s price tag, as well as some of the spending details, leaves most Republicans in Congress skeptical. Biden’s choice of Wisconsin for the town hall was no coincidence: he won the battleground state by just 20,000 votes against Trump in November and it will feature prominently again in the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential race.

On Thursday, he will go to another swing state when he tours the Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where coronavirus vaccines are being manufactured.

And on Friday, Biden will pursue his stimulus bill pitch on the international stage when he addresses the virtual G7 leaders’ meeting and the Munich Security Conference.

The White House says he will stress “the importance of all industrialised countries maintaining economic support for the recovery and collective measures to build back better.”

With slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Democrats could force through Biden’s package without Republicans at all. But Biden took office insisting he would seek cross-party solutions, turning the page on Trump’s ultra-divisive style. So he is keen to break through to at least some Republicans.