Biden willing to negotiate $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package

Washington, Jan 25 (efe-epa).- United States President Joe Biden on Monday expressed willingness to negotiate his proposed $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan to obtain its approval in Congress, after some legislators rejected it as being too expensive.

“This is just the process beginning,” Biden, who presented his plan to achieve economic reactivation and recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic even before taking office last week, told a press conference.

Some Republicans have criticized the expense of the proposal, but the president stressed that “time is of the essence” to achieve bipartisan support and activate the stimulus scheme.

Biden specifically referred to eligibility to access the $1,400 stimulus check for families included in the plan, and that legislators have said should focus on the neediest sectors.

A package approved in December included a check for $600 per taxpayer, but was limited to those making less than $75,000 a year or couples with a combined income of $150,000.

Biden’s proposal also includes items to strengthen unemployment benefits, additional funds for the distribution of vaccines and to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, among other things.

The president on Monday also signed an executive order to boost federal government purchases of American-made products, within the country’s reconstruction plan for the coronavirus crisis.

“I don’t buy for one second the – that the vitality of the American manufacturing is a thing of the past,” Biden said before signing the measure, which responds to a campaign promise to devise a plan to benefit local industry.

Former president Donald Trump also signed a decree in 2017 to encourage the purchase and contracting of American products and services. EFE-EPA

hma/tw