Stimulus Package 2021: What Could Be In It For You
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – JANUARY 08: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks after he announced cabinet nominees that will round out his economic team, including secretaries of commerce and labor, at The Queen theater on January 08, 2021 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden announced he is nominating Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as his commerce secretary, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh his labor secretary and Isabel Guzman, a former Obama administration official, as head of the Small Business Administration. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Earlier today, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled details of his coronavirus stimulus package, which he hopes to help support households and businesses. It's called the American Rescue Plan.
Here’s what Biden calls for, according to CNBC:
- Direct payments of $1,400 to most Americans, bringing the total relief to $2,000, including December’s $600 payments from the package that President Trump signed.
- Increasing the federal, per-week unemployment benefit to $400 and extending it through the end of September 2021.
- Increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
- Extending the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until the end of September 2021
The package, as proposed, also includes $350 billion in local government aid, $170 billion for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education, $50 billion towards COVID-19 spending, $20 billion toward a national vaccine program in partnership with states, localities and tribes.
And, as he discussed while on the campaign trail, a major expansion of tax credits. According to The Washington Post, Biden’s proposal will be both for children and lower-income workers. His plan would expand a tax credit for children to $3,600 a year per child under six years of age, and $3,000 a year for children under 17. It would also extend eligibility for the credit to millions of very poor families who currently cannot access it. It would also dramatically boost the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax benefit to workers, from $530 to $1,500, while also expanding eligibility for that program.
CNBC reports that a second bill, expected in February, will tackle the president-elect’s longer-term goals of creating jobs, reforming infrastructure, combating climate change and advancing racial equity. Senior Biden officials, say that the president-elect still supports $10,000 in student debt forgiveness. Biden will formally introduce the plan during a speech at 7:15 p.m. ET tonight from Wilmington, Delaware.
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