A new economic support plan approved in the United States

The American Congress approved Monday, December 21 a support plan for households and businesses, of some 900 billion dollars, considered essential to get the world’s largest economy back on track, depressed by the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s an emergency and survival program”, said Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday.

Aid is incomplete, and the Biden administration will have to “Fill in the gaps” in January, he added. However, “We should not underestimate the importance of this package” of measures, he noted, “The second most important in history” the United States.

Vote before a possible shutdown

After months of blockage, Democrats and Republicans announced on Sunday that they had reached an agreement in principle on a set of measures, including in particular checks to the most vulnerable families, aid to small businesses and schools, additional unemployment benefits of $ 300 a week, or an envelope for the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

After the vote of the House of Representatives took place that of the Senate. US parliamentarians had to finalize this agreement and approve it on Monday when the specter of a government shutdown (shutdown) was not excluded.

Indeed, Congress has decided to extend by twenty-four hours, until Monday at midnight, the short-term law allowing the financing of federal administrations. Parliamentarians must therefore also find a consensus on the new finance law.

Checks from next week

Even before the vote on emergency aid measures for the economy, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin had assured that checks for $ 600 per adult and per child to help families in difficulty would be sent from the start. of the next week.

He also welcomed this aid, which has been released “Just in time for the holidays” the end of the year. “It’s a very, very quick way to inject money into the economy”, also commented on Donald Trump’s minister.

The objective of direct aid is to support household consumption, and therefore growth. For the households in greatest difficulty, they make it possible to pay the rent. “We can end the year on a rare optimistic note”, Chuck Schumer said, as the pandemic continues to rage in the country and the number of unemployed has started to rise again.

Shutdown of the economy

The world’s largest economy fell into a deep recession in the spring, the worst since that of the 1930s, due to the shutdown of activity in order to stem the new coronavirus, which has caused massive unemployment. The pandemic started again in the fall, putting a stop to job creation and summer activity.

After months of blockage and debate, as the economic situation continued to deteriorate, parliamentarians on both sides were finally ready to approve this text and submit it to President Donald Trump for signature. “This is a first step, and we will have to do more”, reacted Monday Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, noting in particular the need to step up aid to buy vaccines.

However, this plan, which also includes housing assistance, will prevent millions of people who will lose their assistance on Boxing Day from falling into poverty.

Dead end since summer

The first plan, amounting to a gigantic $ 2.2 trillion, had been voted urgently at the end of March, during the first wave of the pandemic. It included exceptional unemployment benefits of $ 600 per week and the sending of checks for $ 1,200 per adult.

Since the summer, Democrats and Republicans have been at an impasse, opposing the overall amount of the new emergency plan: the former demanded a plan equivalent to that of the spring, when the latter wanted to limit it to 1,000 billion. dollars at most.

The new aid package also targets small businesses at risk of going bankrupt. It should also include aid, of some 16 billion dollars, to save tens of thousands of jobs in the airlines and their subcontractors.

“There was broad support from both parties to grant aid to the companies”, commented Steven Mnuchin Monday, stressing the importance of this industry for the economic recovery.