Former Vice President Joe Biden released an economic plan Thursday morning in the aftermath of Senate passage of a $2 trillion emergency relief bill to help the economy in the coronavirus pandemic.
In a video accompanying the plan, Biden said that the key to the stimulus would be “execution.”
The first step in Biden’s plan is to use the Defense Production Act to expand testing capacity and build new ventilators and other needed supplies.
President Donald Trump has already invoked that act, but has not enforced it, saying that the private sector is stepping up to produce what the country needs without “nationalization.”
Biden’s second step is to “launch a task force” that would report to “directly” to him “to make sure every dollar going out the door gets to the people who need it — fast.”
As Biden’s press statement noted, Biden chaired a similar effort when President Barack Obama signed the $862 billion stimulus into law in 2009. However, that effort was largely viewed as a failure.
Three-quarters of the jobs protected or created by the stimulus were in government. Billions of dollars went to pet projects and special interests. Biden took a particular interest in solar panel manufacturer Solyndra — which failed.
The Recovery.gov website was often unusable, with projects marked for congressional districts that did not exist. And unemployment soared into double-digits, after the administration suggested it would not exceed eight percent.
Biden’s third step is to “build the next deal” in Congress to add even more stimulus, such as “additional checks” to families.
The next round could also include the “Green New Deal,” as he suggested in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.