Biden to join road show promoting relief plan

The White House is wasting no time promoting the USD 1.9 trillion relief plan, which Biden signed into law last week, looking to build momentum for the rest of his agenda and anxious to avoid the mistakes of 2009 in boosting that year's recovery effort.

Las Vegas: President Joe Biden is joining top messengers already crisscrossing the country to highlight the benefits of his massive COVID-19 rescue plan, in his case by promoting aid for small businesses.

Biden is set to visit a small business in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday, his initial trip outside Washington for the “Help is here” tour that got underway Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris dropped in on a COVID-19 vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas while first lady Jill Biden toured a New Jersey elementary school.

“We want to avoid a situation where people are unaware of what they're entitled to,” Harris said at the culinary academy.

“It's not selling it; it literally is letting people know their rights. Think of it more as a public education campaign.”

The White House is wasting no time promoting the USD 1.9 trillion relief plan, which Biden signed into law last week, looking to build momentum for the rest of his agenda and anxious to avoid the mistakes of 2009 in boosting that year's recovery effort. Even veterans of Barack Obama's administration acknowledge they did not do enough then to showcase their massive economic stimulus package.

“Hope is here in real and tangible ways," Biden said Monday at the White House. He said the new government spending will bankroll efforts that could allow the nation to emerge from the pandemic's twin crises, health and economic.

“Shots in arms and money in pockets,” the president said. “That's important. The American Rescue Plan is already doing what it was designed to do: make a difference in people's everyday lives. We're just getting started.” Biden said that within the next 10 days, his administration will clear two important benchmarks: distributing 100 million stimulus payments and administering 100 million vaccine doses since he took office.

To commemorate those milestones, Biden and his top representatives are embarking on their most ambitious travel schedule of his young presidency, visiting a series of potential election battleground states this week.

The sales pitch was leaving Republicans cold.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the target of doses that Biden set when he took office as “not some audacious goal” but just the pace that he inherited. And he mocked Biden's talk of Americans working toward merely being able to gather in small groups by July 4th as “bizarre.”

The Biden plan cleared Congress without any backing from Republicans, despite polling that found broad public support. Republicans argued the bill was too expensive, especially with vaccinations making progress against the virus, and included too many provisions not directly linked to the pandemic.

After beginning the sales campaign with high-profile speeches, Biden will head to Pennsylvania on Tuesday and then join Harris in Georgia on Friday. Others on his team are visiting the electorally important states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and New Hampshire.

The trip Monday marked Harris' first official journey in office and included an unscheduled stop at a vegan taco stand as well as a coffee stand at the Culinary Academy Las Vegas.

(AP)