Biden spoke during an economic briefing in the Oval Office days after he proposed a bill totaling about $1.9 trillion.
The president pointed out the plan has support from over 100 economists across the political spectrum and he joined with congressional Democrats in arguing that past crises, including the financial crash, teach that the biggest risk is doing too little.
Biden said, “It’s not only that people will be badly, badly hurt if we don’t pass this package in terms of increased rate of death, in terms of poverty, a whole range of things. But we will also be hurt long term economically. We need to make these investments so the economy can grow the remainder of this year and next year. Investments now will help the economy grow. It will not in fact put a drag on the economy on spending this money. It will do the exact opposite.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “I want to emphasize the president is absolutely right. The price of doing nothing is much higher than the price of doing something and doing something big. We need to act now. And the benefits of acting now and acting big will far outweigh the costs in the long run.”
Biden’s plan has gotten pushback from Republicans and some moderate Democrats for being too expensive and sweeping, with elements not directly related to COVID relief.
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