[News] Biden wants fast COVID aid, but minimum wage hike in doubt

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden laid out his case Friday for moving fast to pass $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief, but even as he opened the door to proceeding without Republicans, he conceded that a key element of his plan — hiking the minimum wage to $15 per hour — was unlikely to become law.

 

워싱턴(AP) - 조 바이든 대통령은 금요일 코로나 바이러스 구호에 1조 9000억 달러를 돌파 한 그의 사건을 발표했지만 공화당원 없이 진행할 수 있는 문을 열었음에도 불구하고 그는 자신의 계획의 핵심 요소인 최저 임금 인상을 인정했다. 시간당 $15까지 - 법이 될 가능성이 낮았습니다.

 

The stakes for the county and economy were amplified Friday morning by the release of the government's jobs report for January, which showed that hiring had stalled to a pace that could hinder a return to full employment for several years. Some 406,000 people left the labor force last month as deaths from the pandemic have surged.

 

금요일 아침 정부의 1월 일자리 보고서가 발표되면서 카운티와 경제에 대한 이해관계가 증폭되었습니다. 이 보고서는 고용이 몇 년 동안 정규직으로 복귀하는 데 방해가 될 수 있는 속도로 정체되었음을 보여 주었습니다. 지난달 전염병으로 인한 사망자가 급증하면서 약 406,000명이 노동력을 떠났습니다.

 

“A lot of folks are losing hope,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. “I believe the American people are looking right now to their government for help, to do our job, to not let them down. So I’m going to act. I’m going to act fast. I’d like to be doing it with the support of Republicans ... they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.”

 

Biden은 백안관 연설에서 많은 사람들이 희망을 읽고 있습니다. "미국 국민들이 지금 당장 정부에 도움을 구하고 우리의 일을 하고 그들을 실망시키지 않기를 바라보고 있다고 빋습니다. 그래서 저는 행동 할 것입니다. 빨리 행동하겠습니다. 공화당 원의 지원을 받아서 하고 싶습니다. 그들은 우리가 가야한다고 생각하는 만큼 멀리 가려고 하지 않습니다."

 

The jobs report landed shortly after Senate Democrats cast a decisive vote to muscle the COVID relief plan through the chamber without Republican support, a step toward final approval next month. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, her first.

 

일자리 보고서는 상원 민주당원이 공화당의 지원없이 공화당을 통해 COVID 구제 계획을 강화하기 위해 결정적인 투표를 한 직후에 발표되었으며, 이는 다음 달 최종 승인을 향한 단계입니다. 카말라 해리스 부통령은 처음으로 상원에서 동점 표를 던졌습니다.

 

Biden's speech solidified a marked shift in tone and strategy for a president who entered the White House pledging bipartisanship and met on Monday with 10 Republican senators pushing a slimmed-down $618 billion alternative. Biden concluded in his Friday speech that aid at that level would only prolong the economic pain.

 

Biden의 연설은 백악관에 입성하여 양당 정권을 다짐한 대통령의 어조와 전략의 현저한 변화를 확고히 하고 월요일에 10명의 공화당 상원의원과 만나 6180억 달러의 대안을 제안했습니다. Biden은 금요일 연설에서 그 수준의 원조가 경제적 고통을 연장시킬 뿐이라고 결론지었습니다.

 

Still, the president acknowledged Friday that one of his most ambitious proposals, raising the minimum wage, would likely be left out of the final bill.

 

그럼에도 불구하고 대통령은 최저 임금 인상이라고 가장 야심 찬 제안 중 하나가 최종 법안에서 제외 될 가능성이 높다는 점을 금요일에 인정했다.

 

“I put it in, but I don’t think it’s going to survive,” Biden said in an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell, adding he would push to raise it in a standalone bill. “No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage. And if you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage.”

 

Biden은 "CBS Evening News"앵커인 Norah O'Donnell과의 인터뷰에서 "내가 넣었지만 살아남을 것 같지 않습니다."라고 말했다. 그는 독립형 법안에서 이를 인상 할 것이라고 덧붙였다. " 아무도 일주일에 40시간 일하고 빈콘 임금 이하로 살면 안됩니다. 시간당 15달러 미만이면 빈콘 임금 이하로 살고 있는 것입니다."

 

Senate Democrats applauded after Harris announced the chamber's 51-50 vote on the budget measure at around 5:30 a.m. The action came after a grueling all-night session, where senators voted on amendments that could define the contours of the eventual COVID-19 aid bill.

 

Following Senate approval, the House passed the measure 219-209 on Friday afternoon, also without a Republican vote. The coronavirus aid package can now work its way through congressional committees with the goal of finalizing additional relief by mid-March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires. It’s an aggressive timeline that will test the ability of the new administration and Congress to deliver.

 

“We have been focused like a laser on getting this done,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after leading Democrats in the House met with Biden on Friday. “We hope to be able to put vaccines in people's arms, money in people’s pockets, children safely in schools and workers in their jobs. That’s what we are doing now.”

 

The push for stimulus comes amid new signs of a weakening U.S. economy. Employers added just 49,000 jobs in January, after cutting 227,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said Friday. Restaurants, retailers, manufacturers and even the health care sector shed workers last month, meaning that private employers accounted for a meager gain of 6,000 jobs last month.

 

“At that rate, it’s going to take 10 years until we hit full employment,” Biden said during his Oval Office meeting with House Democrats. “That’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact.”

 

The unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7%, but there was a decline in the number of people who were either working or looking for a job in a sign that people are dropping out of the labor force. The U.S. economy is 9.9 million jobs shy of its pre-pandemic level.

 

Biden, who has been meeting with lawmakers in recent days to discuss the package, welcomed the leaders of House committees who will be assembling the bill under the budget process known as “reconciliation.” Money for vaccine distributions, direct payments to households, school reopenings and business aid are at stake.

 

The size of the package has been a concern for several Republican lawmakers and some economists. Larry Summers, a former treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, said in a column for The Washington Post that the $1.9 trillion package was three times larger than the projected economic shortfall. A separate analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found the plan would do little to boost growth relative to its size.

 

The Senate also passed an amendment 99-1 that would prevent the $1,400 in direct checks in Biden’s proposal from going to “upper-income taxpayers.” But the measure, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is ultimately symbolic and nonbinding and does not specify at what level a person qualifies as upper income.

 

Biden told CBS he was “prepared to negotiate” on the upper boundary for where payments would phase out. “Middle-class folks need help," he said. "But you don’t need to get any help to someone making 300,000 bucks or $250,000.”

 

And while Biden seemed willing to break with Republicans in his speech, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters afterward that the budget process approved by the Senate still allows for bipartisanship.

“The process enables for time for negotiations through committee work,” Psaki said. “We certainly are hopeful that there will be opportunities for amendments from Republicans, amendments from others across the board to be a part of this process moving forward.”

 

www.marketbeat.com/articles/biden-wants-fast-covid-aid-but-minimum-wage-hike-in-doubt-2021-02-05/

Biden wants fast COVID aid, but minimum wage hike in doubt