House sends COVID-19 relief to Biden

Over unanimous Republican opposition, congressional Democrats granted final approval to a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package on Wednesday. The bill includes $1,400 payments to individual taxpayers, an extension of added unemployment benefits, expanded tax credits, and a mountain of cash for vaccines, testing, state and local governments, and other Democratic priorities. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill on Friday.

Can the United States afford it? The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the federal deficit through February hit an all-time high of $1.05 trillion for the first five months of a budget year. Increased spending, blamed on the pandemic, far outpaced tax revenue. The October through February deficit was 68 percent larger than the $624.5 billion deficit recorded during the same period last year.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew about the long-term hazards this spending bill poses to the U.S. economy.