'We can keep businesses open': Biden connects with Americans to sell COVID relief packages

President Joe Biden has been connecting with average Americans since his campaign trail and now in the first instalment of a series of weekly addresses, he is again trying to sell his massive COVID-19 relief packages to the citizens. The clips of the conversation, which the White House framed as a modern-day version of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats, were around Biden’s longstanding campaign theme that many Americans derive their dignity and self-worth from their jobs. In the video, Biden was filmed calling Michele, a woman from Roseville, California, who lost her job because of the pandemic. 

The newly minted President promised that his economic plan is intended to help restore the loss of dignity and purpose that she and so many others have felt over the past year. He even sought to convey his empathy for the economic struggles many Americans are facing as the driving motivation behind the relief legislation. Biden’s conversation with Michele was also intended as a reminder that there are real people still suffering economically across the country who are far removed from partisan bickering in Washington over the deficit and the details of what will drive the economic recovery. 

“I've been saying a long time -- the idea that we think we can keep businesses open and moving and thriving without dealing with this pandemic is just a nonstarter," Biden told Michele. 

He added, “We're putting together a plan that provides for emergency relief to people who are in desperate need now”. 

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‘Package is going to be speedy recovery’ 

Biden hasn’t made headway with his initial efforts to win bipartisan support for his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, so, with the ‘weekly conversation’, he is taking his case directly to the voters, and connection with Americans one at a time as he uses their stories to drive his policy agenda. While speaking to CNN, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also amplified that message. She acknowledged the criticism of the size of the relief package and the warning from Larry Summers, the former director of the National Economic Council during the Obama administration, that it could lead to inflation. 

However, Yellen said that the overreaching goals of restoring economic prosperity are important. She added that she expects that if the package is passed then the country would get back to full employment next year. Yellen said that the economic challenges and tremendous suffering in the country are the “biggest risk”. She also noted that the Congressional Budget Office issued a recent analysis showing that the unemployment rate will not return to four per cent again until 2025 unless there is additional support. “We would have a long slow recovery as we had after the financial crisis, but this package is going to really speed recovery," she said.

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