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Before the ink had dried on last week’s COVID-19 relief bill, Biden signaled more was needed and would be among his first priorities. That may prove easier said than done. Biden faces a political landscape essentially flipped and Democrats are in a potentially weaker position than the one Republicans recently occupied.
In recent interviews, Biden indicated more was needed for COVID-19 relief. Speaking at a Delaware news conference, Biden said, “Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us.” Calling the recently passed $908 billion COVID-19 relief measure a “down payment” Biden stated, “Congress did its job this week and I can and I must ask them to do it again next year.”
The COVID relief deal Congress reached over the weekend didn’t come a moment too soon. Actually, it came much too late: Crucial aid to many unemployed Americans and businesses expired months ago. But now some of that aid is back, for a while.
True, the aid will be less generous than it was in the spring and summer: $300 a week in enhanced unemployment benefits, rather than $600. But because the workers still out of a job as a result of the pandemic tended to have low earnings even before the coronavirus struck, they will, on average, be receiving something like 85% of their pre-COVID-19 income.
How important are the Georgia runoff elections for two seats in the U.S. Senate? Well, look at it this way: Unless Democrats win both seats, Joe Biden – assuming, for the sake of argument, he is sworn in as the next president – will become the first Democrat since Grover Cleveland in 1885 to enter the White House without his party controlling both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Why is that important? Because it means that without victories in both races, Biden will not be able to move his legislative agenda through the Congress without at least some measure of GOP buy-in. And, legislatively speaking, that makes all the difference in the world.
Paul Krugman column: The ghost of sabotage future chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.