Meanwhile, the president-elect’s stimulus check proposal falls short of what progressives demand.
With more than a third of households struggling to afford basic needs such as food and rent, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion pandemic “rescue” package on Thursday that calls on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from the current floor of $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour. A $15 minimum wage wasn’t Biden’s idea. For years, Fight for $15 and other grassroots movements have been organizing for a $15 federal wage floor, and it has long been a priority for Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressives in Congress. Biden’s proposal represents a triumph for labor movements and progressive coalitions that have tirelessly pushed for a $15 minimum wage. Biden’s rescue proposal also includes $1,400 per-person stimulus checks on top of the $600 approved by Congress last month; the president-elect is already facing pushback from some progressives who want a third round of checks at $2,000. “$2,000 means $2,000. $2,000 does not mean $1,400,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post. In addition to the checks, Biden is asking Congress to fund a range of relief measures aimed at households hit hardest by the pandemic and the economic downturn, including emergency paid sick leave for 106 million workers, extensions of emergency unemployment programs through September, and a $400 weekly unemployment supplement to help cover household expenses. New unemployment claims increased by 304,000 to 1.2 million last week, and more than 18 million people currently rely on unemployment insurance. The package also includes $50 billion to expand coronavirus testing and lab capacity, and $20 billion for a national vaccination program that would partner with state and local governments. Citing the disparate toll the pandemic has taken on low-income communities and people of color, the package would also expand funding for community health centers located in underserved areas and fund 100,000 public health workers through a federal jobs program. Biden also proposes $130 billion in spending to help schools “safely reopen.” “The very health of our nation is at stake,” Biden said during a televised speech on Thursday. That’s no exaggeration. An estimated 90 million people say their households are unable to afford basic needs such as utilities, food and rent, according to analysis of federal data. About 29 million adults live in households that didn’t always have enough to eat during the week just before Christmas, an increase of 7 million people since August. With Inauguration Day quickly approaching, Biden came under mounting pressure this week from progressive members of Congress and activists to take swift action and prevent evictions and utility shutoffs across the country.
