NEW: I wrote a little in today's @MTPFirstRead how the Ghosts of 2009 are driving Dems to go BIG BIG BIG on Covid relief -- even as there's mounting evidence the $1.9 trillion is more than needed nbcnews.com/politics/meet-…
You saw today's jobs report, which rules. State budget pictures are improving. New economic forecasts look sunnier. Shots are in arms. Even some Biden allies wonder if $1.9 trillion is overkill given the numbers. @JStein_WaPo had a good roundup on this. washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021…
Economists can debate whether $1.9 trillion (and $350b for state/local aid) is too much given the data.
But Biden isn't just looking at data, he's looking at the Senate. One bad roll of the actuarial dice and their ability to pass more stimulus is gone. nbcnews.com/politics/meet-…
But Biden isn't just looking at data, he's looking at the Senate. One bad roll of the actuarial dice and their ability to pass more stimulus is gone. nbcnews.com/politics/meet-…
Yes, jobs are coming back and vaccines are getting out. But we're still down almost 1.4m state/local jobs and 9.5m jobs overall from 2020. And there's LOTS of uncertainty. Every scary headline about variants could be nothing, or could be looming disaster. nytimes.com/2021/03/03/wor…
If there's another surge from variants/letting guard down, even just one last big one before vaccines go widespread, that could darken the recovery picture or require more resources to respond. Prematurely rosy projections were a factor in the too-small stimulus in 2009.
Even as state budgets improve, there's also still a case for shooting big on state/local aid. Local govts in particular might feel more confident aiding the most affected after tightening belts preemptively in 2020. nbcnews.com/politics/meet-…
In DC, when it turned out the budget looked better than expected, some leaders were actually upset. If they had known it earlier, they'd have delivered more aid to the most vulnerable and to small businesses in 2020. More federal $ could free that up. dcist.com/story/21/02/05…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
