Vice President Kamala Harris hit the road Thursday to make the case for two hefty legislative packages the Biden administration says are needed to set up the economy for life after the COVID-19 pandemic, saying they would add jobs and continue growth.
During a mostly upbeat speech in Baltimore, President Joe Biden’s No. 2 offered something of a pep talk on their 100th day in office for a country that has been waylaid by the virus for 13 months. She predicted the country’s “endurance” and “aspiration," both of which put men on the moon and spurred construction of vast swaths of railroads during the Civil War, would lead to a stronger post-coronavirus United States.
However, she mostly ignored the deep, and sometimes violent, political divisions and anger that often make such rosy speeches feel a bit tone-deaf. For instance, Republican lawmakers reacted angrily to Biden’s fist session of Congress address, greeting it with charges of “socialism,” reckless spending, and trying to pull a con on the public.
“America is once again on the move,” Harris said, echoing Biden’s assessment of the country the night before in his address amid signs the coronavirus pandemic is fading. “We see light at the end of the tunnel.”
She had a message for people who know others who are skeptical about or resistant to get their COVID-19 jab: “Just roll up your sleeves,” she said people should tell skeptics.
But polls suggest it won’t be that easy to convince some conservatives and minorities to change their minds about the COVID-19 inoculation drugs being administered to millions daily. Both groups are skeptical. It also won’t be a simple chore to convince GOP lawmakers to support their legislative whims or even enter into legitimate negotiations.
“It just continues. He wants control of your life,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News personality Sean Hannity minutes after Biden concluded on Wednesday night. “He’s going to control how much meat you can eat. Can you imagine that?”
Harris was back in Charm City, which was home to her 2020 presidential campaign headquarters, to sell several legislative proposals her boss made a pitch for the night before in his address from the ornate House chamber.
She used part of her remarks to look back 100 days, saying the COVID-19 vaccination rate was much slower and the U.S. Capitol had just been attacked.
“We were not deterred, and our nation was not deterred,” she said. “We had a plan to get America back on track.”
One is the American Families Plan, which proposes nearly $2 trillion in new spending over the next decade, in addition to $800 billion in tax benefits, which the Biden-Harris administration contends would be paid for over 15 years — but Republican lawmakers are resisting its size, scope, and how the White House duo is proposing to pay for it.
The main pillars of the plan are free preschool and two years of community college, estimated to cost $309 billion, and a $225 billion, 12-week national paid family and medical leave program, introduced during the next 10 years. It would also help families with childcare needs, which administration officials say would help more people join the workforce.
"Every working mother needs that support. Every working parent needs that support," Harris said after telling the story of a family friend who helped care for her and her sister while their mother worked as a breast cancer researcher.
One way the administration is proposing funding its various bills it says are needed to jolt the economy following the coronavirus pandemic is hiking the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. That proposal came in the first part of the Biden-Harris “infrastructure” plan, the American Jobs Plan, which has a hefty $2.3 trillion price tag.
GOP members say that measure, and its follow-on, contain lists of items not covered by Washington’s traditional definition of infrastructure. A bipartisan group of senators has been meeting about a possible transportation-focused, smaller version of the jobs bill that would work on upgrading aging roads, bridges, airports, tunnels, and seaports across the country.
As Republicans criticize Biden for not living up to his rhetoric of striking deals, Harris gave a shoutout to the state’s GOP governor, Larry Hogan.
She also touted the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending bill, which Biden signed into law earlier this year. Multiple polls show around 60% of people support that measure, which passed both chambers of Congress without a single GOP vote.
She and the president are hoping similar public support will coalesce around their two pending spending bills, which they say are needed to ensure economic growth continues as the virus fades.
“The American people rallied around it,” she said of the $1.9 trillion measure, to applause.
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As she and Biden try selling the next two packages, Republicans are holding the line against both, just as they did the earlier measure.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered this assessment of Biden’s Wednesday evening address: “The president talked about unity and togetherness while reading off a multitrillion-dollar shopping list that was neither designed nor intended to earn bipartisan buy-in.”
