While his seditious-insurrectionist Predecessor was undergoing a record second impeachment trial, President Joe Biden met with some of the nations leading CEOs to gain greater support for the COVID 19 American Rescue Plan.
Saying "the American People are hurting and a lot of people are in real trouble," President Biden, along with Vice President Harris and Treasury Secretary Yellin met with leading CEOs at the White House. These leading executives were Sonia Syngal of Gap's, Jamie Dimon of Chase Bank, Doug McMillon of Walmart, Marvin Ellison of Lowes, and Tom Donohue of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
The President said he believes all the misery wrought on Americans due to the Coronavirus Pandemic is "soluble."
He reaffirmed his commitment to reaching out to Republicans to gain their support for the American Rescue Plan.
He told the assembled CEOs in the Oval Office that "we are in a position to think big and move big and to move in a direction that can not only get the economy back in its feet but we have to get people well before we get people on their feet."
Mr. Biden stressed that work to make people and the economy better had to be undertaken at the same time and welcomed the input from the CEOs at the meeting in, hopefully, finding "common ground."
The President did become agitated when a reporter asked him about the Impeachment trial, saying that is the Senate's job and he was focused on helping the American People and preventing more deaths from COVID 19.
No other details of the meeting that occurred away from the cameras have been released so far. One subject that certainly came up was the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour, an amount some of the CEOs (like Walmart's) do not favor.
Chase CEO Jamie Dimon did release a statement afterward, relaying:
“We had a constructive and detailed conversation that covered a lot of ground — the urgent struggles of so many Americans, a path to a sustainable and equitable economic recovery, and the future of American competitiveness.”
Moving Forward with the American Rescue Plan.
The White House and Democratic Congress are pressing on with advancing a large COVID 19 rescue bill. House legislators have included increased health care insurance subsidies in the legislation as well as extending eligibility to other Americans. Yesterday (February 8, 2021,) they put in the expansion of tax credits that will greatly reduce child poverty. They have also included a $15.00 an hour minimum wage although its fate in the Senate remains unclear. Finally, House legislators announced the cut off to receive the $1400 cash stimulus checks will be people earning up to $75,000. This may also be finessed in the Senate to get Democrats on the legislative fence.
Republicans, as many writing on this blog and elsewhere (please click here to read former Senator Al Franken's article in Rolling Stone) predicted, are screaming about the national debt and budget deficit.
According to USA Today, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had a good suggestion for them at the daily briefing:
"Well, one thing that could happen is that the tax cuts for the highest income could be rolled back. And there’s, kind of, a newfound concern about deficit reduction among some who supported those tax cuts. So, you know, that’s one suggestion."
It is so nice when there is an Administration in power that fights for all the people and not just the top two percent.
Hopefully, the CEOs will support the American Rescue Act.
But if they do not, Democrats, learning from Republican obstructionism in 2009, will just march on anyway with their plan that has support from two-thirds of the American People and pass COVID relief through budget reconciliation.
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