President Biden’s $1.9-trillion stimulus plan could return the U.S. economy to full employment within a year, treasury secretary Janet Yellin said in an 18 February CNBC interview.
Even though the economy is showing signs of gradual recovery, the full $1.9 trillion is still essential, she argued.
“It’s very important to have a big package that addresses the pain this has caused – 15 million Americans behind on their rent, 24 million adults and 12 million children who don’t have enough to eat, small businesses failing,” she said.
The plan includes a $1,400 payment to every U.S. adult that “will help jump-start our economy, giving people money to spend when we can get out again and go back to our former lives,” Yellin added.
“There’s a lot of families operating on the margin and these checks will really help them.”
Additional massive stimulus spending could spark inflation, she admitted, but “inflation has been very low for over a decade… it’s a risk but a risk that the Federal Reserve and others have the tools to address.”
“The greater risk is having this pandemic take a permanent, life-long toll on [people’s] lives and livelihoods.”
TREND FORECAST: Neither Congress nor the Biden administration has offered plans to tackle the massive deficits that Biden’s and previous stimulus spending have forged.
The U.S. budget deficit in fiscal 2021 will be $2.3 trillion, not including any new stimulus spending not yet approved by Congress, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The higher the deficit, whether national, state, or city, politicians will push to raise taxes. Indeed, even Ms. Yellen said taxes “probably” will need to be increased to pay off the debt, saying “that would probably phase in slowly over time.”
As we have forecast, the higher the taxes rise, the stronger there will be for anti-tax, populist political movements. And, as we reported in this Trends Journal, the numbers prove a majority of the public is seeking an alternative to the establishment ruling parties.
TREND FORECAST: In our 12 January article, “DEMOCRATS: IMPEACH TRUMP,” we had forecast this is the beginning of the formation of a new political party to replace the failing Republican Party. A recent 15 February Gallop poll confirmed our forecast, showing that a record-high 63 percent of Republicans favor a third party.
