Biden, Collins pitch dueling coronavirus aid plans forward of White House assembly
By John Wagner and Erica Werner
Both Biden and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pitched their respective coronavirus aid plans Monday forward of a day assembly scheduled on the White House between the president and10 GOP senators, together with Collins, who’re urgent for a much less formidable various.
“We’re facing an economic crisis brought on by a public health crisis, and we need urgent action to combat both,” Biden mentioned in a tweet touting his $1.9 trillion bundle. “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 joint assertion detailing their $618 billion proposal, Collins and her colleagues mentioned they acknowledge Biden’s “calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your Administration,” including that they “share many of your priorities.”
It would scale back the scale of a brand new spherical of checks that Biden needs to ship to Americans, from $1,400 per particular person to $1,000 — whereas considerably decreasing the earnings limits that decide eligibility for the stimulus funds.
The GOP plan would additionally cut back Biden’s proposal for extending emergency federal unemployment advantages, that are set at $300 per week and can expire in mid-March. The Biden plan would enhance these advantages to $400 weekly and lengthen them by September. The GOP plan would maintain the funds at $300 per week and lengthen them by June.
In an interview with the New York Daily News, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) mentioned one of many shortcomings of the GOP plan is that it doesn’t present direct help to states and localities.
“That’s just one thing of many,” Schumer mentioned.
He advised that Republicans “not give us a take-it-or-leave-it offer.”
“We’d like to negotiate with them, but there’s lots of things in the president’s plan that are not in their plan,” he mentioned.
