President Biden’s coronavirus stimulus proposal, the American Rescue Plan, cleared its final hurdle when it passed the House on Wednesday. Now that it’s passed, the White House loves calling the coronavirus bill the “most progressive” law in history.
Summary
The House of Representatives passed the American Rescue Plan, the latest Covid relief bill on Wednesday.
- President Biden will engage in “public relations outreach” to sell the bill to the public “to avoid repeating the mistakes” of the Obama administration’s 2009 stimulus law.
- Biden will be signing the bill Friday, which several prominent Twitter voices made light of, trolling Washington Post reporter Philip Bump, sarcastically and rhetorically asking how many people have to die before Biden acts.
- The bill contains $350 billion for state and local governments, which Axios predicted could generate a fight among municipalities clamoring for their share from the states.
- Taking a victory lap on the passage of the bill, President Biden will address the nation Thursday night.
- Vox lauded the scope of the bill, saying it is “aimed at providing assistance to people at lower income levels and takes a bottom-up approach” while using a chart from Twitter that illogically compares the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to Biden’s American Rescue Plan. That’s like comparing apples and the tooth fairy’s GDP; it just doesn’t make sense.
- Huffington Post took Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker to task for highlighting parts of the bill as if he voted for it, but didn’t.
- The New York Times turned the passage of the bill into an opportunity to run a sycophantic profile of President Biden’s transformation into what they called (and I’m not kidding) a “crusader for the poor.”
- The New York Post highlighted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s comments calling the bill “the most progressive” bill in American history, and noting many Republicans agree.
- In reporting on the passage of the bill, OANN focused on Republican critique of what everyone now agrees is the most progressive legislation Congress has ever passed, emphasizing House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s comments about items he alleges are not related to coronavirus in the bill.
- Similarly, Newsmax emphasized Republican legislator’s opposition to the bill while also noting recent polling has the bill at a 61% approval rating.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
