President Biden has demanded Congress give him $30 billion for additional pandemic spending while a reported $350 billion remains unspent.
As the White House has acknowledged it has enough money from the $1.9 trillion relief package passed in March, Biden wants more taxpayer money already appropriated for fear of another Chinese coronavirus variant metastasizing, the Washington Post reported. Congressional Democrats have stated additional pandemic funds should also be used to expand welfare programs ahead of the midterm elections.
“Congress must reenact and expand the [stimulus package’s] guaranteed emergency paid sick and caregiving leave to help workers and rebuild our economy, as we work toward the creation of a permanent paid family and medical leave program for all workers in the long term,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and 13 other Democrats said in a letter.
“Let’s start the discussion by talking about repurposing the hundreds of billions already sitting in the pipeline,” he said.
Biden’s spending request comes as inflation has reached a 40-year-high. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has noted several times that pumping into the economy is not appropriate during record high inflationary periods. Manchin, a critical senator of the 50 Senate Democrats, hails from a state where the electorate voted for Donald Trump by nearly 40 percentage points.
But other Democrats, who are not from red states, are presumably less worried about inflation and more concerned about their reelection chances. In a generic ballot, Republicans are leading Democrats, meaning the nationwide electorate is favoring Republican candidates over Democrats.
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