Some have questioned the need for the size of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan just signed into law by President Biden. Leaving aside the benefits of the individual pieces of the bill, there are several reasons why “going big” is the right thing to do.
Economists will be writing papers for years about how to use fiscal policy to fight pandemic downturns. But as PPI President Will Marshall has written, “Biden correctly gauged the magnitude of the nation’s health and economic emergency. After a long, grinding year of loss, suffering and social isolation, his instinct to go big is right.”