President Biden’s American Rescue Plan

It's a big ef**ng deal 

Just as the Affordable Care Act was a ‘big ef***ng deal’ eleven years ago, March, 2010, President Joe Biden has just made a big deal of his own. 

Biden’s American Rescue Plan legislation passed in the Senate on Wednesday. Biden is expected to sign his plan into law Thursday, at 1:30 p.m., instead of Friday as initially reported. 

Photo credit: Olivier/WAPO

The $1.9 trillion bill is expected to include extended unemployment benefits of $300 per week (through September, 2021), a one-time $1,400 stimulus payment and hundreds of dollars to families with children. This economic stimulus would also ensure millions more Americans can get Coronavirus vaccines, small business could stay afloat, and fund America’s crumbling infrastructure. Moreover, the plan would provide millions to African-American farmers who were left out of the previous administration’s payments to U.S. farmers. 

READ: Good News for African-American Farmers? 

Seemingly, all that proposed good is not good to Republicans who failed to cast a single vote, in favor, of the legislation. In scathing commentary, Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, described the legislation as “laundry list of leftwing priorities” that “do not meet the needs of American families.” McCarthy (R-CA) also called Biden’s plan “liberal” and “corrupt” that rejected funding to get America’s schools reopened. 

Another good READ: 6 out of 10 Americans want stimulus checks. (Only 6 out of 10?)

The pandemic has caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and has especially hit women hard. In the backdrop of Women’s History Month Vice President Kamala Harris convened a roundtable discussion to address this fact and wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post where she stated that, “the American Rescue Plan will tackle our nation’s most urgent needs, lifting up women workers and their families.” 

Biden is expected to address the nation live Thursday at 8:00 p.m. (EST) in his first prime-time address as U.S. president where he is not only expected to comment on his first major piece of legislation, but vaccine distribution, getting American closer to normalcy amid the pandemic, as well as the ever-growing U.S. border crisis; all tasks needing immediate attention during his first one-hundred days in office.