United States: a colossal stimulus plan to boost the economy before Congress
The US Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington (illustrative image).
AP - Susan Walsh
Text by: Altin Lazaj
3 min
President Joe Biden's stimulus plan, which should be adopted definitively this Wednesday by the US Congress, reached the gigantic amount of 1.9 trillion dollars, the equivalent of Italy's GDP in 2020. After the Senate vote on March 6, the House of Representatives is expected to give the green light thanks to the support of the Democrats alone.
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Through
this vast recovery plan
, the American president hopes to boost the growth of the country which has suffered greatly from the health crisis.
Indeed, US GDP contracted 3.5% in 2020, its worst year since World War II.
The aid program provides hundreds of billions of dollars for businesses, federal states and local communities as well as for the fight against the pandemic.
Some $ 75 billion will be spent on vaccine production, immunization, testing and tracing.
Nurseries, schools, high schools and universities will also benefit from tens of billions of dollars in aid.
Fight against poverty
But the flagship objective of the program is poverty reduction.
The stimulus package provides for income-tested checks of $ 1,400 for millions of Americans and an unemployment benefit of $ 300 per week.
In order to fight poverty, tax credit systems are also being considered with a view to increasing the income of the poorest families.
However, the proposal to increase the minimum wage to $ 15 from the current $ 7.25 was dropped.
By increasing household income, the Biden administration wants to encourage them to consume in order to revive the American economy.
From the spring, consumption should jump thanks to the two previous public aid plans distributed since the start of the crisis, but also due to the relaxation of activity restrictions and the vaccination campaign.
For Republicans, this stimulus package is akin to waste.
They denounce in fact “
far left
”
measures
.
► See also: United States: agreement in Congress on a plan to support the economy of 900 billion dollars
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Economy
United States
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