Biden’s Big New Covid Relief Plan Deserves Support

In his speech on Thursday night, President-elect Joe Biden said his new economic-stimulus proposal is only the first installment of a two-stage plan to speed America’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Part two will come next month in his State of the Union address. Biden’s strategy will need to be judged as a whole, but this first set of initiatives is mostly on target. Congress should take it up urgently.

It’s a pity that the most expensive component of the plan — another round of checks to most households regardless of need, adding $1,400 to the $600 already provided in the measure that passed in December — is likely to be its least cost-effective. The outlay for this is some $450 billion of the total $1.9 trillion. Given the plan’s other elements and the aid already delivered, the economy is not lacking in aggregate spending power, and doesn’t need more pure stimulus. Most households have stronger finances now than they did when the pandemic began. It would’ve been better to aim this new help more squarely at the millions of people in greatest need.