Update….
The Bill has passed both Houses of Congress….
Seeking to ‘Go Big’ a la Trump….
The President and Vice President Harris will be doing a follow up to his signing the Almost Two Billion Dollar Stimulus and Virus money bill…
(Including trying to rename the effort ‘President Biden’s American Rescue Plan’)
Biden knows that Republicans will try to pick out parts of the bill and claim it for their own….
Biden also knows that Republican state and local officials will be happy to get the money and he wants to make sure they know who thought of the idea….
Of course he wants ALL the media attention he can get to point to him and Democrats also showing HE could something Donald Trump did NOT do….
Produce…..
Biden is scheduled to deliver his first prime-time address as president Thursday, which will focus on the Covid crisis. Later this month, he’ll hold the first press conference of his young presidency. He’s committed to making a still-unscheduled address to Congress. And officials are busy preparing for a sprawling sales campaign designed to draw attention to the benefits of the Covid-relief package. Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and others will hit the road to tout, among other things: the $1,400 checks, how billions of dollars in the bill will reopen schools, and the investments being made in increasing the numbers of vaccinations.
“There are a lot of people who use the term ‘victory lap’ in a derogatory way. I’ve already heard people saying that Biden is about to take a victory lap. Well, that’s a lot of crap,” said House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a close Biden ally. “One of the—if not the biggest—mistakes that Obama made, in my opinion, was getting the Recovery Act done and not explaining to people what he had done.”
Biden and top administration officials acknowledged they’ll have to do more to ensure the benefits of their package sink into the public’s consciousness. And they’ve spent weeks carefully planning how best to begin their efforts while much of the country remains consumed by the pandemic. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that once the American Rescue Plan is signed, “We will need to do some work and use our best voices.”
Part of the White House strategy before the Covid package passed was aimed at avoiding the kinds of storyline distractions that Biden can sometimes create in less guarded moments. That’s one reason the White House so far has avoided putting Biden in front of reporters for more in-depth questioning.
The upcoming sales job will require Biden to assume a new posture: fewer scripted events and private dealings with lawmakers, more interactions with the press and appearances before the public. That will give the president opportunities to make more emotional appeals, such as highlighting older family members finally being able to get together with their grandchildren.
BIden enters this new phase in an enviable position. Support for the coronavirus legislation is sky high, as is confidence in the president’s handling of the pandemic….
Ouch?
Sahil Kapur
@sahilkapur
.
@AC360
asks if Dems could’ve done more to win GOP votes like Collins & Murkowski on Covid.
@SenSchumer
responds: “No. We made a big mistake in 2009 and ’10. Susan Collins was part of that mistake. We cut back on the stimulus dramatically and we stayed in recession for 5 years.”
Biden will NOW sign the Stimulus/Rescue Bill TODAY before his speech tonight…..
Benjy Sarlin
@BenjySarlin
One of the funnier Trump v Biden subplots is how Trump promised the moon as a starting point on all things, Biden likes to lower expectations near the floor and then go “woah, a miracle has occurred!”
BREAKING….
CNN Breaking News
@cnnbrk
President Biden signs his historic Covid-19 relief package into law. A White House official says he wanted to get it done as soon as possible. https://cnn.it/3crP1e9
Oh, it’s now called a ‘rescue’ plan….
This is Biden second ground on stimulus bills in ten years….
CSPAN
@cspan
.
@POTUS
has signed the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package
BTW?
Bush II had one also….
I’ll do a post after tonights Biden’s speech…
But here’s a teaser ….
President Biden, in his first prime-time address since taking office, is planning on Thursday night to speak to a nation still reeling from the deadly coronavirus pandemic, offering a look back on the devastating year as well as previewing what he will characterize as a coming return to some sense of normalcy, according to White House officials.
Biden views the speech as a key marker to reflect on his first 50 days in office, one that comes almost exactly a year after the nation began to shut down as a result of the pandemic and at an inflection point in his own presidency, officials said. It was last March 11 that then-President Donald Trump gave his own widely criticized Oval Office address, suspending travel from Europe while also telling Americans of the virus: “The risk is very, very low.”
The president will also mark the successful passage of the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which Biden is scheduled to sign during a White House ceremony Friday….
More…
I liked parts of the speech. Some parts not so much.
But what was missing, the entire time, was the opportunity and hope to see Major sprinting down that long hallway in the background and jumping right onto the Presidential podium for some prime time exposure in the middle of the speech.
Why else have a gigantic rambunctious First Dog?
Joe Biden’s handlers just didn’t want Major to face embarrassing reporters’ questions about Grrrrrisma.
Jen Psaki will handle all those questions from now on, thank you very much.
I heard a rumor that a tape exists of Major pissing in a White House bed that Trump slept in.
No good deed unpunished …
Dogs have incredible noses and they like to piss where piss was before. I assume that CG is alluding to Steele dossier reports that Trump was into that stuff. dogs should be able to tell the difference between prostitute piss and canine piss, but I doubt that they care.
Joe Biden is gonna have to walk a LONGGGGGGGGGG Mile to get any serious crossing the aisle thing going in the near future….
This from Manchin’s Republican Gov….
Jim Sciutto
@jimsciutto
WV Gov
@JimJusticeWV
takes aim at
@Sen_JoeManchin
for maneuvers on Covid relief: “IT’S CHILDISHNESS. JOE NEEDS TO GROW UP AND GET BY THAT. FOR GOD’S SAKES, HE’S HURTING HIS OWN PEOPLE IN THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA.”
Manchin is a man LOST…..
What precisely and specifically is Gov. Justice talking about?
Breaking….
House passes the Senate Stimulus Bill version….
Biden will sign the Bill into Law Friday….
Vox
@voxdotcom
BREAKING: The American Rescue Plan – Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package – is about to become law.
The legislation passed on Wednesday by a 220-211 vote. No Republicans in the House or the Senate supported the package.
Check’s get printed and mailed starting in a week…..
Joe Biden has been office only 50 Days….
Mitch McConnell said he thinks the US economy is about to boom but wants you to know this relief bill supported by 0 Republicans will have nothing to do with it.
I’m guessing the Trump tax cuts from 2017 will get the credit by Mitch and company
Most agreed the economy was going very well before Covid hit.
Obviously, Covid affected many people financially. With the end of the pandemic perhaps a few months away, it makes sense that there might be optimism the economy can return to its previous status.
How many Americans are out of work right now?
How many businesses are gone?
How many local and state governments have HUGE holes in their budgets?
How much personal debt is out there?
Cuts
McConnell and Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the rich did NOT make things better for anyone but
the rich….
Is Biden’s speech tonight or Thursday (tomorrow) night?
I believe it’s tomorrow….
He signs the bill Friday….
DSD….
Biden Plans Prime-Time Address Tonight
“Marking a year of loss and disruption, President Joe Biden will use his first prime-time address since taking office to steer the nation toward a hungered-for sentiment — hope — in the ‘next phase’ of the fight against the pandemic that has killed more than 529,000 Americans,” the AP reports.
Previewing his remarks, Biden said he would “talk about what we’ve been through as a nation this past year, but more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next.”