What are the economic policies that the new US President, Joe Biden and the Democrats, will be attempting to put into place from Wednesday January 20th..?

Your task is to prepare a presentation and article for The Young Person's Guide to Economics entitled...'A New President on January 20: What Economic Policies with Joe Biden and the democrats Introduce?'

The new US President, Joe Biden, has talked about creating a better America, and his economic plans appear to be a balance between proposals that are considered very capitalist (meaning allowing the free market to determine outcomes) and somewhat relying on the public sector (allowing government intervention to determine outcomes). Biden’s main plan is called “Rescue America Plan.” It has three components: dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic; strengthening the social safety net for those who have really suffered because of Covid-related economic hits; and helping state and local governments. . The total cost of his proposals is USD$1.9 trillion, which seems very costly.

The Covid part of the plan has several parts. First, there is the vaccination plan, which will cost USD$20 billion and wil give every American free vaccinations, no matter whether they are in the country legally or not. Setting up community-based vaccinations centres is part of the plan as is another USD$50 billion to pay for Covid testing. It also includes using something called the Defense Production Act, which allows the American government to force its manufacturers to make specific products in case of an emergency. For example, the DPA is being used to make companies manufacture special syringes that will allow an additional vaccine dose to come out of the vial. The plan will also pay for a strong surveillance system to help public health experts track the virus and any mutations. What’s good about the plan is that it will hire 100,000 people to deliver it, including training vaccinators. This makes sense, given how many people have lost their jobs.

The second part of the plan is about the social safety net. Much of the plan is about providing direct assistance to the millions of Americans who have really suffered because of the pandemic. For example, even though a recovery is under way and the unemployment rate has declined, the picture is not as positive for women, Latinos, blacks, and youth. For these groups, high levels of unemployment that lasts longer is a problem. No jobs mean greater levels of poverty, hunger, homelessness, depression, and desperation. It is clear that direct assistance is important, especially since it isn’t their fault that they lost their jobs. And it isn’t their fault that there simply are not the same jobs available as before since so many businesses have gone under. Things like extended unemployment insurance, food assistance, USD$1400 direct checks, money for businesses that are the verge of failing ($15 billion in grants to small businesses, and seed money for $175 billion in low-interest business loans), prevention of home eviction, delaying paying off student loans, and other measures are included. The plan also includes combined 14 weeks of paid sick and family medical leave for millions of workers. Biden also mentioned raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. To put this into perspective some states' minimum wage is$5.15 an hour. The number of parents who would be able to provide for their children and still have time to see them would increase. This is an important social aspect of Biden’s economic plan. His ideas not only improve the economy in the US but they also improve people's well-being.

The last part of the plan is USD$350 billion in aid to state and local governments. The pandemic has meant that states and local governments don’t have as much revenue coming in to cover public services. In addition to things like street cleaning, salaries for police officers, fire fighters, and public health officials come out of these budgets. And during the Trump administration, governments received no help at all and had to fund their own mass testing, personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and support for hospitals that were totally overwhelmed by Covid patients. So many governments are now in bad shape financially and can not continue in the same way, especially since they do not have enough resources to pay for vaccination plans. The Biden plan will pay for a lot of this.

Biden’s plan also involves making changes to the tax code. Low-income workers and children are the object of more tax credits. He wants to expand a tax credit for children to $3,600 a year per child under 6, as well as $3,000 a year for children under 17. Poor families are also helped with tax proposals in the plan and he would increase the Earned Income Tax Credit, a benefit for workers, from $530 to $1,500.

Biden does not just care about the economy but about the decreasing carbon and other harmful gasses in the environment, as well. With taxpayer money in his first term he is going to invest USD$2 trillion dollars into clean energy. The stimulus plan he is setting in motion, will cost 1.9 trillion dollars, however during the current pandemic millions of people have become unemployed similar to the great recession. Bidens plan to continue the stimulus fund will help american citizens back on their feet until they can start working again.