Another Republican President, Another Recession.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 80% of the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance aimed at keeping families in their homes during the pandemic went to low-income tenants, the Treasury Department said Thursday.

It also concluded that the largest percentage of tenants receiving pandemic aid were Black followed by households. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Treasury found that more than 40% of tenants getting help were Black and two-thirds of recipients were female-headed households. The data was consistent with what Treasury saw throughout the year.

“This is money that flows from Treasury to every state and territory in the country, and we really have seen a real focus on delivering these dollars,” said Noel Andrés Poyo, the deputy assistant secretary for Community Economic Development at Treasury. “It has been encouraging from my point of view to see states that are very diverse and to see these agencies lean into something really hard, it was really tough to stand up these programs, this data reflects where the need was.”

According to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, those most likely to face eviction are low-income women, especially women of color. Domestic violence victims and families with children are also at high risk for eviction.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

• US vaccination drive is bottoming out as omicron subsides
• Grumbling grows as Hong Kong sticks with zero-COVID policy
• Canada authorizes first plant-based COVID-19 vaccine
• Maryland lawmakers voice support for paid family leave bill

“It’s really encouraging to see so much of the rental assistance reaching those most in need: women, Black renters, and low-income households in particular,” Peter Hepburn, a research fellow at the Eviction Lab, said. “These are the groups that face highest risk of eviction and who were most severely affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic. They’re the ones that this money was meant to help.”

Lawmakers approved $46.5 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance last year. After early challenges getting the funds out, the pace of distribution has picked up significantly in recent months. Throughout 2021, over $25 billion has been spent and obligated. That represents 3.8 million payments to households, Treasury said Thursday.

The agency’s findings on beneficiaries showed their efforts to reach low income communities the past year had paid off.

Among other things, Treasury recommended states and localities make applications multi-lingual and introduced flexible guidelines that allow tenants to self-attest for their income. It also targeted harder-to-reach communities and worked to promote the rental assistance program in Black and Spanish media.

“A year later, Treasury is pleased to report that the vast majority of rental assistance has gone to keeping the lowest-income families in their homes during the pandemic,” Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement. “This wasn’t by accident, and we continue to use every lever to ensure these funds are distributed equitably and encourage state and local grantees to increase ease of access.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will launch a major overhaul of nursing home quality in his State of the Union speech, White House officials said Monday, outlining a series of measures long sought by advocates and opposed by the industry.

Taken together, the more than 20 separate steps would raise the bar on staffing and quality, increase government oversight, continue efforts to keep COVID-19 out of nursing homes, and shine a spotlight on a growing trend toward investor-owned, for-profit facilities.

One major missing element: New sources of federal financing to pay for the ambitious upgrade.

“Overall these are very positive developments,” said Harvard health policy professor David Grabowksi, who tracks long-term care. “If you ask the industry, they’ll tell you this will put them out of business. If you ask an advocate, they’ll say there’s plenty of money in the system. I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.”

Nursing home residents represent a disproportionate share of deaths in the coronavirus pandemic, and the Biden administration has also been working to develop home- and community-based care as an alternative.

STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

• Biden to launch ambitious overhaul of nursing home quality
• State of the Union: Amid disputes, common cause for Ukraine
• New normal: Fence is up, Guard on standby for State of Union
• On cusp of Biden speech, a state of disunity, funk and peril

The cornerstone of Biden’s nursing home plan is a new requirement for minimum staffing standards. He’s ordering the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to conduct a study on staffing and publish proposed regulations within a year.

Experts say staffing levels are the single most important marker for nursing home quality, and many facilities lack sufficient numbers of nurses, nursing assistants and other workers involved in providing direct care to patients. The coronavirus pandemic has led to many workers leaving the industry, even as nursing homes raised wages, so a new federal staffing requirement may take time to put into place.

Lawmakers in Congress have been debating legislation to require minimum staffing standards for facilities that accept payment from Medicare and Medicaid, as virtually all do. The original plan was to include staffing requirements in Biden’s domestic agenda bill, but with that legislation stalled the administration seems to be shifting to using its regulatory powers to bring about changes.

Biden’s plan also calls for moving nursing homes toward private rooms for their residents, directing federal regulators to explore how to phase out living arrangements that house three or more residents in the same room.

“Despite the tens of billions of federal taxpayer dollars flowing to nursing homes each year, too many continue to provide poor, substandard care that leads to avoidable resident harm,” said a White House policy document that outlined Biden’s plan.

There was no immediate reaction from the major nursing home industry groups.

Beefed-up oversight is another priority for Biden. His plan calls for increasing the nursing home inspection budget by $500 million, a boost of nearly 25%. Nursing home inspections are generally carried out by the states, following guidelines from Medicare. Biden is planning to revamp a special inspection program that focuses on low-performing facilities, to raise fines on nursing homes that fail to improve and, if necessary, cut off Medicare and Medicaid payments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the problems of nursing homes, a neglected part of the health care system. More than 200,000 residents and staff of long-term care facilities have died, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. While nursing home residents and staff account for a tiny share of the U.S. population, they have accounted for more than 1 in 5 deaths.

Biden’s plan calls for the government to keep a focus on vaccinating and boosting nursing home residents and staff, along with regular testing. While the omicron wave saw increased cases and deaths in nursing homes, facilities were largely spared a repeat of last winter’s grim experience.

With infection control considered a chronic problem at many facilities, Biden is directing Medicare to strengthen requirements that the nursing homes employ on-site infection prevention specialists.

More than half of the nation’s nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies, and the administration wants to shine a spotlight on a growing trend of private equity firms snapping up ownership of facilities.

The White House said the private equity stake in the industry grew from $5 billion in 2000 to more than $100 billion by 2018.

“Too often, the private equity model has put profits before people, a particularly dangerous model when it comes to the health and safety of vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities,” the White House policy document said.

Officials said federal agencies will be directed to examine the role of private equity investors in the nursing home industry “and inform the public when corporate entities are not serving their residents’ best interests.”

Advocates were cheered by the White House announcement.

“This plan is a major step forward for quality and safety in our nation’s nursing homes,” said Terry Fulmer, president of the nonprofit John A. Hartford Foundation, which works to improve long-term care. “It will be essential that it get implemented quickly and monitored closely for the improvements we need now.”

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Drumminghead said:

The tile of this post aged well.

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Drumminghead said:

The tile of this post aged well.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a robust 678,000 jobs in February, another gain that underscored the economy’s solid health as the omicron wave fades and more Americans venture out to spend at restaurants, shops and hotels despite surging inflation.

The Labor Department’s report Friday also showed that the unemployment rate dropped from 4% to 3.8%, extending a sharp drop in joblessness as the economy has rebounded from the pandemic recession.

The latest jobs data follows recent reports that have shown an economy maintaining strength as new COVID infections have plummeted since late January. Consumer spending has risen, spurred by higher wages and savings. Restaurant traffic has regained pre-pandemic levels, hotel reservations are up and far more Americans are flying than at the height of omicron.

Average hourly pay barely rose last month but has increased 5.1% in the past year, a sign that companies feel compelled to raise wages to attract and keep workers. Many employers, in turn, have been raising prices to offset their higher labor costs, a process that has fueled inflation.

Consumer inflation has reached its highest level since 1982, squeezing America’s households and businesses, with price spikes especially high for such necessities as food, gasoline and rent. In response, the Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates several times this year beginning later this month. Those increases will eventually mean higher borrowing rates for consumers and businesses, including for homes, autos and credit cards.

BUSINESS

• US added 678,000 jobs in February in sign of economic health
• Russia's war spurs corporate exodus, exposes business risks
• Biden to announce Siemens investment, planned factory jobs
• Wall Street points toward declines, following Europe, Asia

Chair Jerome Powell said this week that he plans to propose that the Fed raise its benchmark short-term rate by a quarter-point when it meets in about two weeks. Powell has acknowledged that high inflation has proved more persistent and has spread more broadly than he and many economists had expected.

The Fed chair cautioned that if inflation failed to ease later this year as he expects, he would consider carrying out half-point increases at future central bank meetings. Larger hikes would raise the risk of weakening the economy or even tipping it into recession.

Powell also warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will lead to higher prices for gas as well as for such other commodities as aluminum, wheat and corn, thereby keeping inflation higher than it would otherwise have been. Oil prices, which have been soaring since war began more than a week ago, are critically important to the global economy.

For now, though, despite high inflation, the rapid fading of the omicron variant is likely to accelerate the U.S. economy and job growth. A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Americans are now much less worried about COVID than they were in December and January. Mask mandates and other restrictions are ending. More companies are returning to pre-pandemic operations, including working in offices.

Data from the restaurant reservation software provider OpenTable showed that seated diners surpassed pre-pandemic levels late last month. And figures from the Transportation Security Administration reflected a sharp increase in the number of people willing to take airplane flights.

During the omicron wave, businesses barely wavered in their demand for workers. Job openings at the end of December reached near-record levels, with an average of 1.7 available positions for every unemployed person. Historically, there are usually more people out of work than there are jobs.

With many companies desperate for employees, layoffs have plunged. The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell two weeks ago to its lowest level since 1970.

Americans’ concerns about inflation have eroded their optimism about the economy. The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence slipped in February for a second straight month.

Still, other surveys show that Americans are increasingly satisfied with their own financial situations. And people clearly see that many jobs are available, the Conference Board’s survey shows.

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Senate Republicans have issued a series of early threats against a still-forming deal to fund the federal government, signaling that they could delay the package — which may include emergency aid to Ukraine — over concerns about excessive spending and vaccine mandates.

The early warnings, delivered in two letters to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), could slow lawmakers’ time-sensitive work as Russia’s incursion into Ukraine is intensifying — all while Washington faces a March 11 deadline to fund federal agencies and avoid a government shutdown.

In the first letter, sent Thursday, eight GOP lawmakers complained that “families are feeling the pressure of skyrocketing prices,” which they blamed on “reckless government spending.” In response, they said they “cannot allow another massive spending package to be rushed through Congress without proper consideration and scrutiny.”

The letter demanded “appropriate time” to read and review any funding bill. It also called for an official analysis by the Congressional Budget Office to assess the impact of the legislation on inflation and the federal debt. And it signaled that Senate Republicans could withhold their votes if their terms are not met, potentially slowing debate to a crawl.

“Until we can fully understand what is in any potential [spending] bill, its impact on the fiscal strength of the United States, and how it will influence our nation’s growing inflation crisis, we should not vote on it,” they wrote.

Signing the missive were Republican Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.), Cynthia M. Lummis (Wyo.), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Mike Lee (Utah). Some of the members have publicly called for aid to Ukraine, with Scott in particular arguing that it should be divorced from a government funding measure.

In the second note, sent Friday, 10 Republicans revived their campaign against federal vaccine and testing requirements. Even as public health officials broadly maintain that the policies help curtail the spread of the coronavirus, the GOP lawmakers pledged they would “stand against these mandates until they are discontinued in ambition, design and practice.”

GOP tactics herald a grim new era of governing for Biden and Democrats

Specifically, the Republicans promised to block lawmakers from forging ahead swiftly to pass the bill if it funds implementation of mandates. They said “at the very least” they would “require a roll-call vote on an amendment that defunds enforcement,” a move Republicans have demanded in other recent government funding fights.

The second missive was signed by some of the same Republicans, plus Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Steve Daines (Mont.).

While it is unclear how far Senate Republicans might take their latest threats, their twin missives added to the challenges facing congressional leaders as they seek to cobble together a long-term government funding deal, a goal that has eluded them for months. Both sides insist they do not want a shutdown, although their bickering — intensified by GOP demands — repeatedly has pushed the country to the brink over the past year.

For now, Democrats and Republicans say they are making progress on a long-term deal, which could include massive increases in spending at key domestic agencies as well as the Pentagon. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) previously has said that he hopes to hold a vote on the package, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, as soon as Tuesday, leaving the Senate a short window to act before the March 11 deadline.

Their efforts have gained greater urgency as result of Russia’s intensifying invasion of Ukraine, since lawmakers in both parties see the funding measure as an opportunity to deliver billions of dollars in new humanitarian and military assistance. Senior administration aides this week requested about $10 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine, which some Democrats and Republicans hope to augment with further punishments against Russia, including new limits on imports of Russian oil.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed U.S. lawmakers via Zoom and pleaded for more assistance to his war-torn nation. His request included the provision of additional lethal aid, as well as support for a global effort to stop buying Russian oil.

Exiting the call, Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) said Zelensky’s “call to action must lead to swift passage by Congress of the $10 billion in emergency supplemental aid.”

Cruz, Lee and some other Republicans issuing threats against the spending bill have a history of using government funding battles to advance political objectives. Recently, the duo has forced Democrats to hold a series of ill-fated votes targeting President Biden’s policies requiring coronavirus vaccines and testing, nearly pushing the government to shut down.

Scott, meanwhile, has found himself at odds in recent days with some members of his own party over his economic plan, released in February. That proposal has drawn objections from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), among others, and Scott on Friday fired off an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal criticizing “Beltway cowardice” over government spending.

Earlier in the week, a wider array of Republicans issued the first warnings against the omnibus, telling Democrats they may not be able to support a spending deal that provides billions of dollars in fresh coronavirus aid. The lawmakers said they wanted a fuller accounting of how previous aid had been spent before considering new sums.

The Biden administration has said it needs more than $22 billion to prepare for future waves of the pandemic.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/03/05/republicans-federal-spending-ukraine-vaccines/View attachment 5097464

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On Friday, Biden could boast that the economy had created 678,000 jobs in February, reducing unemployment to a stunning 3.8 percent. (Upward revisions of 92,000 jobs for prior months suggested the economy has been stronger than reported.)
Economist John Leer observed: “What this tells me is that the U.S. economy is open for business. Omicron is in the past, and businesses expect demand to remain strong going forward.” While the war’s potential effect on energy prices remains a worry, it’s hard to quibble with manufacturing growth, job creation and real wage improvements this large.

For months, Biden has received unremittingly negative coverage of his performance, the White House believes. Considering the economic recovery, his success in beating back covid-19, and passage of the American Rescue Plan and a huge bipartisan infrastructure plan, the Biden team should be forgiven for thinking it deserves a bit more credit.

Nevertheless, Biden has suffered from two developments, one for which he is responsible and the other far less so. The one of his making: Spending so much time on the failing Build Back Better plan, a fight that devolved into daily, negative coverage focused on the spoiler role of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and the package’s 10-year cost. Had Biden gone “smaller” or ended the BBB ordeal sooner he might have moved on to other things. Losing on voting rights further sapped his standing. Presidents do not get credit with their base for “trying” when they fail.

Biden is less responsible for the second factor dragging him down: inflation. The conventional wisdom that excess funding for the American Rescue Plan overheated the economy is highly suspect. Inflation was largely the result of an abrupt economic shutdown, built-up consumer demand and ensuing supply-chain disruption. On Friday, Biden made the case that “our economy roared back faster than most predicted, but the pandemic meant that businesses had a hard time hiring enough workers to keep up.” And “when factories close, it takes longer to make goods and get them from the warehouse to the store, and prices go up.”

A recent study from Moody’s Analytics supported that view, showing that the American Rescue Plan “contributed just one third of one point of inflation — i.e. inflation would be just 0.35 less without the American Rescue Plan.”

Few would have been pleased to forgo the American Rescue Plan’s benefits to save 0.35 percent of inflation. But pointing to a double-dip recession that didn’t happen and explaining that inflation is the province of the Federal Reserve does not make for effective political messaging. Voters will still blame the incumbent for price hikes — especially when Republicans insist the American Rescue Plan accounts for the entire problem. Understanding that the Fed must reduce inflation, Biden has settled for a batch of initiatives (e.g., attacking price gouging and releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) that suggest he is focused, determined and aware of consumers’ plight.

Four factors, not all within Biden’s control, will largely determine whether his approval rating improves.

First, Ukraine’s struggle for democracy and self-determination has touched a chord with Americans, promoting hope and pride in democracy. Just as he suffered from the dispiriting scenes of the Afghanistan exit, Biden will benefit from the emotional lift Ukraine has given us, especially if he stands firm as the Free World’s resolute leader. Voters may not know a whole lot about foreign policy, but they still appreciate a president rallying the world to a noble cause.

Second, no one should minimize the impact of the transition to living with covid. Putting away masks, returning to the normal rhythm of life, traveling more easily and simply knowing children’s schools won’t suddenly close should lift spirits and sustain the recovery. Biden can celebrate the sacrifice, grit and endurance of the American people; he, in turn, should benefit from the sense that “normal” is back. (And he deserves credit for the country’s mammoth vaccination program, improved access to testing and delivery of new treatments.)

Third, Biden must avoid initiatives destined to fail (a Build Back Better 2.0). He can focus on popular bipartisan proposals (his unity agenda) and on just a couple of the most popular items — green energy and containment of prescription drug costs. He can pair those with tax reform to shrink the deficit and promote tax “fairness.” He’ll either chalk up some wins or cause Republicans to squirm as they cast “no” votes on popular initiatives. In the same category of “pursuing winning policies,” Biden would be wise to champion a significant crime package that combines community policing, training and funding for additional police officers. (It wouldn’t hurt if he were also to take Republicans to task for venerating violence as “legitimate political discourse.”)

Finally and most important, as long as high inflation dominates the news, Biden and the Democrats will, deserved or not, face voters’ wrath. Demonstrating concern and addressing other drivers of price increases will not insulate Biden from blame if inflation numbers don’t drop.

Biden correctly observed that we have come through a grueling two years. As we emerge from the covid recession era and celebrate democracy’s most valiant defenders, he finally has a foothold to climb out of the political ditch. At least he’s stopped digging.

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hanimmal said:

It really sounds like (based on Washington Journal callers this morning on CSPAN) the word of the day is "OIL".

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki clashed with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy on Monday over who is to blame for rising gas prices.

"It sounds like you guys are blaming Putin for the increase in gas prices," Doocy complained at a White House press briefing. "But weren't gas prices going up anyway because of post-pandemic supply-chain issues?"

Psaki noted that recent price spikes in energy prices are "a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine."

"So, you say you're going to do everything you can to reduce the impact that high gas prices has on Americans," Doocy pressed. "We're asking other countries to think about pumping more oil. Why not just do it here?"

"Federal policies are not limiting the supplies of oil and gas," Psaki explained before the Fox News correspondent interrupted.

"There was an executive order [President Joe Biden's] first week that halted new oil and gas leases on public land," Doocy said.

"Let me give you the facts here," Psaki replied. "I know that can be inconvenient but I think they're important in this moment."

The press secretary explained to Doocy that "there are 9,000 permits that are not being used."

"So the suggestion that we're not allowing companies to drill is inaccurate," she remarked. "The suggestion that that is what is hindering or preventing gas prices from coming down is inaccurate."

"Wait, you guys think asking Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or Iran is reducing our dependence on foreign oil?" Doocy asked.

But Psaki pointed out that Doocy had been in the room when she answered a similar question moments before.

"I don't think anyone is advocating for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, perhaps, except for the former president, who pulled us out of the [nuclear] deal," she concluded.

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hanimmal said:

Fox's nepotistic propagandist demonstrating the 'Just Keep Selling' troll when faced with the facts of American oil production not being slowed due to any of Biden's policies. I wish she would have added that the oil production decreased during Trump's last year, and that the Saudi's are not acting like good allies right now, but I am guessing there is some good political logic why she isn't bringing either of those dick heads up.
https://www.rawstory.com/jen-psaki-peter-doocy-gas-prices/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will soon begin to run out of money to bolster COVID-19 testing supplies and to guarantee that uninsured Americans keep getting free treatment for the virus unless Congress swiftly approves more funding, the White House warned.

Nearly a year after passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the administration says the federal government has nearly used up the money dedicated directly to COVID-19 response. More money from Congress is urgently needed to buy antibody treatments, preventative therapy for the immunocompromised and to fund community testing sites, officials say.

“From the COVID side, the bank account is empty,” said COVID-19 deputy coordinator Natalie Quillian. “We’re in conversations with lawmakers about how to secure the funding, but it’s urgently needed.” Some of the consequences could be felt later this month.

The White House last month told Congress it was preparing to seek $30 billion for the virus response, but cut that to $22.5 billion in a formal request earlier this week that officials said includes only the most critical needs. It’s being coupled with a $10 billion request to provide support to Ukraine and its people after Russia’s invasion.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

• Mask mandates go away in schools, but parent worries persist
• As virus cases go from 1 to 24,000, New Zealand changes tack
• AP PHOTOS: Scenes from Hong Kong's COVID-19 crisis
• Florida to recommend against COVID vaccines for healthy kids

“This is an urgent request and this is what is at stake in our fight against COVID,” press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.

This month, the White House warns, COVID-19 testing manufacturers will begin to slow production of at-home rapid tests unless the federal government signs contracts to buy more. Officials say that could result in a supply crunch should there be another surge in cases.

They also said the Health Resources and Services Administration will be forced to begin winding down claims for COVID-19 treatment for uninsured people this month if Congress doesn’t provide more money. Moreover, the U.S. government supply of monoclonal antibodies would run out in May. And in July, supplies of the AstraZeneca prophylactic injection that can prevent serious illness in immunocompromised individuals would go dry. By September, the U.S. would run out of supplies of an oral anti-viral pill.

“Given how costly COVID has been with so many of our fellow Americans hospitalized or dying, and our daily lives disrupted, we simply cannot afford to wait on investing now and keeping people protected,” said Psaki.

The request also includes funding to support U.S. vaccine purchases and global vaccine distribution.

The U.S. has enough shots of the Pfizer vaccine for children under age 5, should it be approved in the coming weeks. But if regulators make it a three-dose vaccine regimen, the administration would need more money to buy additional doses. The same would also be true if regulators determine that kids aged 5-11 should receive booster shots.

The White House emphasized that the federal government must sign contracts for drugs and vaccines months before they’re needed, so Congress must act now to prevent any gaps.

Some Republicans have expressed sticker shock at Biden’s request, pressing the administration to repurpose other relief funding that hasn’t been spent.

“Oh no, that’s too much,” Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Thursday when asked about the administration’s $22.5 billion request. “And secondly, we want to see how much money is out there” that hasn’t been spent yet from previously approved COVID-19 relief measures.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and 35 other GOP senators wrote Biden on Tuesday that before supporting new money, they want “a full accounting” of how the government has spent funds already provided.

The White House says it’s open to exploring reallocating already-approved, unspent money, but emphasized that the priority must be to continue meeting needs.

And the administration will ask Congress for additional funding in coming weeks.

“We are being reasonable in our urgent request now, but we know more will be needed,” said Quillian.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the federal government has worked to make COVID-19 treatments and vaccines free. Earlier this year, Biden began shipping up to eight free virus tests to U.S. households.

Quillian said the administration is open to eventually shifting the cost of drugs to insurers, like treatments for other illnesses, particularly as the virus becomes subsides. But she said that the White House believes COVID-19 recovery is still too fragile to make the change yet, and that Washington needed to foot the bill.

“We can’t squander our position,” Quillian said.

The COVID-19 relief bills enacted since the pandemic began have contained $370 billion for public health programs including vaccines and other medical supplies, testing, research, and reimbursing providers, according to a Department of Health and Human Services table obtained by The Associated Press.

Of that amount, $355 billion is currently being spent, has been spent or has been committed to contracts, according to HHS.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has a solution for high inflation that seems counterintuitive: Bring factory jobs back to the U.S.

This challenges a decades-long argument that employers moved jobs abroad to lower their costs by relying on cheaper workers. The trend contributed to the loss of 6.8 million U.S. manufacturing jobs, but it also translated into lower prices for consumers and put downward pressure on inflation in ways that kept broader economic growth going.

It was a trade-off that many corporate and political leaders were privately comfortable making.

Now, with inflation at a 40-year high, the president has begun to argue that globalization is stoking higher prices. That’s because proponents of outsourcing failed to consider the costs of increasingly frequent global supply chain disruptions. Recent disruptions have included the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of basic goods like semiconductors, destructive storms and wildfires and, now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has sent oil prices soaring.

Biden says the federal government can pursue two courses on inflation. It can either pull back on support and cause wages and growth to cool, or it can get rid of the pressure points that can lead to inflation when emergencies and uncertainties occur.

JOE BIDEN

• European stocks surge, Asia down after Wall St retreat
• Biden signing order on cryptocurrency as its use explodes
• White House: Venezuela has freed 2 detained Americans
• Top lawmakers reach deal on Ukraine aid, $1.5T spending

“We have a choice,” Biden said Friday when announcing plans by Siemens USA to add 300 jobs. “The way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poorer or have a better plan to fight inflation: Lower costs and not your wages.”

The president then unspooled his thinking that more manufacturing of semiconductors inside the U.S. would lead to more cars and other products being produced domestically. That would fill the supply chain and, in theory, bring prices down.

But this plan would take years to implement and the consumer price report being released Thursday is expected to show that annual inflation rose to nearly 8% last month, according to the financial data firm FactSet.

Biden’s challenge is that he’s got long-term plans on inflation to address pain that consumers are feeling each day, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum, who described Biden’s plan as “optics.”

“Semiconductor manufacturing facilities take years to build,” he said. “Inflation’s here now, and it’s it’s an issue now.”

Biden’s assertion sets up an ideological battle with Republicans, who blame the president’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package for being excessive and flushing more cash into the U.S. economy than was needed. GOP lawmakers have said inflation — up from recent averages of about 2% — is entirely the president’s fault, while the administration is trying to say the bigger problem rests with the structure of the global economy.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and others said last week that inflation — especially for gasoline — was the key source of the nation’s angst ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

“You don’t need a speech to know what the state of the union is. You feel it every time you go to the grocery store and the gas pump,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

Critics see this new Biden effort as largely an attempt at political damage control, rather than a data-driven approach to reducing inflation.

“It’s primarily about optics,” said Scott Lincicome, director of economics and trade at the libertarian Cato Institute. “The Biden administration clearly knows that inflation is a political albatross. And they are looking for anything and everything to show American voters that they have a plan to fix the problem.”

Lincicome argues that the vast majority of inflation is caused by Federal Reserve efforts to boost growth, Biden’s relief package and the general challenges of restarting an economy after the pandemic. Restoring factory jobs that went elsewhere would not address those challenges and any arguments for that are based on the belief that supply chain disruptions have become a permanent feature of the global economy, he says.

“Global supply chains lower costs and increase efficiency,” Lincicome said. “The idea that reshoring will somehow lower costs assumes a permanent pandemic situation and that’s just not reality.”

The Biden administration, for its part, is making that exact argument — supply chain disruptions are becoming more common and weighing on prices in ways that companies previously failed to consider.

The White House contends that the existing setup of the U.S. economy makes it vulnerable to disruptions that drive up prices. When companies first sent jobs overseas, they failed to fully account for the possible setbacks and challenges that can occur overtime with distant factories.

People were not accounting for increased “risks and disruption, and they weren’t thinking about five-, 10-year horizons,” said Sameera Fazili, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council. “They were looking at minimizing costs over a one-year horizon, two-year horizon.”

The administration is basing its argument, in part, on analyses done by the McKinsey Global Institute. A 2020 report by the institute found that companies will likely experience supply chain disruptions lasting a month or longer every 3.7 years, which increases costs and cuts into profits.

The risks examined in the report range from a “supervolcano” to a “common” cyberattack. There are political risks as well, as 29% of all global trade in 2018 came from countries ranked in the bottom half of political stability by the World Bank, an increase from 16% in 2000.

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hanimmal said:

https://apnews.com/article/biden-covid-business-health-prices-ea8197898a76390df54560aa4f29745d
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Roger A. Shrubber said:

republicans are blaming Biden for trump's fucking of the economy...Joe is working on someone else's huge mess, and instead of helping, they're trying to say he made the mess to begin with....
god help us if they get back in control...they'll crash the economy so hard they'll be begging Biden to come back and fix it...ok, they won't beg Biden to come back but they will crash the economy so hard it may destroy the country...it will most certainly put us into a recession, when we already have high inflation...so more unemployed people just when prices are surging...can you say "republican welfare state" ?

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