Biden pitches spending plan in address to Congress

Due to pandemic safety measures, President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress had 200 attendees instead of a packed chamber of 1,600. The president highlighted recent successes in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and his biggest legislative victory, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. He also pitched the final piece of his $4 trillion dollar spending proposal—the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan—which proposes national paid family leave, free community college, universal pre-K education, and more.

How did Republicans respond? South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott delivered the GOP response. The only black Republican senator, Scott noted Senate Democrats scuttled a police reform bill he authored last year and charged Democrats with weaponizing race for political gain. He also criticized Biden’s big spending plans, saying the plans to raise taxes on upper-income families and corporations would kill jobs and hurt Americans at every income level.

Dig Deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew about the contents of Biden’s infrastructure bill.