Covid Relief Bigger Than World War II Budget? Sounds Right.
The federal government is right to flex its ample fiscal muscles in response to the pandemic’s economic and social devastation.
If you're going to war against the pandemic, then you need to spend like it.
Photographer: Olivier Douiery/AFP/Getty Images
President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill on Thursday that brings total federal spending to combat the pandemic over the last year to about $6 trillion. He also plans to tee up a huge infrastructure outlay of about $4 trillion over the next 10 years on roads, bridges, tunnels, energy grids, strategic industries and other needs.
That’s a lot of money. And it’s raised the hackles of Biden’s critics. They’re concerned that those trillions amount to dangerous overreach, will saddle the government with gargantuan, unmanageable debt and will eventually produce rampant inflation. Just look, they say: It’s more than the U.S. government spent fighting World War II!