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Biden's stimulus plan will harm those who need the most help



If you thought help for the coronavirus was on the way, think again. President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to provide economic relief is going to cause a lot of pain and waste a lot of money on people who do not need it.

At a time when the nation’s entire problem is that so many people are out of work due to government restrictions on business, Biden wants to make it illegal to work for less than $15 per hour. That is the real-world effect of raising the minimum wage to that level, and it will be devastating for people living and working in poorer parts of the United States. It is a terrible idea right now to impose a massive labor cost increase on businesses that are already struggling to stay open. But even worse, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has recently estimated that such a move, despite giving a slight raise to as many as 17 million people, will destroy up to 3.7 million jobs overnight. So, if the goal is to harm those most affected by the coronavirus and reward those who got to keep their jobs, then Biden’s plan is just the thing.

It is no mystery that Biden is out to pay back the union bosses who got him elected, whose union contracts are often based on a multiple of the minimum wage. But his proposal will destroy jobs and artificially hasten the processes of automation that is taking many low-skilled jobs off the table in these modern times. Biden seems unconcerned with the effect this will have on younger and less skilled workers.

In this time of coronavirus restrictions, it is not unreasonable that Biden is seeking to expand unemployment benefits through September. But his plan to give out $2,000 stimulus checks for the prosperous and the downtrodden alike, including to adult dependents, is simply insane, as it was when President Trump first devised it. So is Biden’s plan to expand the already increased child tax credit for everyone, regardless of how the crisis has affected them.

It should not be lost on those who work and serve in the halls of power that some people have come through this coronavirus mess completely unscathed. Some highly skilled professionals have actually prospered while enjoying the additional privilege of working from home. So, why should taxpayers be rewarding life’s winners indiscriminately with such a windfall, along with those unfortunates who actually need it?

Finally, the extension of a moratorium on evictions through September is nothing short of cruelty to small landlords. Many of these people ⁠— middle-class, often elderly, and typically unable even to use their losses as a tax write-off in any given year ⁠— struggle to make their mortgage payments. What are they to do if they have lost their jobs as well? And what happens to the maintenance of their rental units when tenants refuse to pay for the next nine months? Meanwhile, Biden has a $350 billion bailout planned for state and local governments that were horribly irresponsible with their own taxpayers' money well before the coronavirus came on the scene.

Biden has famously complained about the need to restore the economy out of one side of his mouth and then promised out of the other side of his mouth to put the nation on lockdown if scientists tell him to. He seems to be bringing this lack of logic and consistency right into the early days of his administration.

Over the last 12 months, government at various levels has deprived many people of their ability to make a living in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. We urge Congress to pare back Biden’s plan. Please focus not on a broad and unnecessary, budget-busting stimulus but on aiding those who are suffering and actually need help.


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Posted: January 15, 2021 Friday 02:11 PM