Joe Biden’s relief plan is getting pushback from both Democrats and Republicans for its generosity.  The new President released its $1.9 trillion stimulus package about two weeks ago; it includes checks to American families, money for states and local governments, support for vaccine distribution, and more.

The plan calls for $400 weekly pandemic unemployment benefits, a $15 minimum wage, and $1,400 stimulus checks in its current form. A bipartisan group of lawmakers thinks that the plan gives too much money to many Americans who might not even need it.  

CNBC reported that the Biden administration could be open to adjusting eligibility levels for the next round of direct checks.

The State of the U.S. Labor Market

• The U.S. Unemployment rate was 6.7% in December.
• 10.9 million Americans  are still unemployed
• The labor participation rate currently stands at 61.5%, nearly 2% less than January 2020

A recent report also stated that nearly 20% of renters in America are behind on their rents.

Those with federally-backed mortgages and student loans paused their payments since April.  

Moratoriums on foreclosure and evictions have been in place since around the same time. One can say that the  American middle-class personal balance sheet is a bit misleading right now.  

Many Americans, mostly the white-collar workers, who could do their job from home, are doing better now than before the pandemic hit.  Americans have nearly $2.5 trillion surpluses in deposits ready to be spent.   However, the statistics above show that millions of Americans are in a dire financial strait.

Joe Biden’s relief plan is far from being too generous.  Jerome Powell, the Federal Fed Chairman, said, “I do think it’s likely that further support is likely to be needed from monetary policy and fiscal policy.”

President Biden has had the “ Middle-Class Joe” nickname for awhile.  Let’s hope that he understands the middle class and its perpetual plight.