The eight major differences between Joe Biden’s and the GOP’s Covid relief plans

A side-by-side comparison of each party’s approach to several top-line issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic

Joe Biden will host a group of 10 Republican senators at the Oval Office on Monday evening to discuss if there is a way forward on a bipartisan Covid relief bill.

The president has released a proposal with a top-line $1.9trn price tag.

The 10 Republicans, led by Maine Senator Susan Collins, have put together a $618bn package — less than a third of Mr Biden’s asking price.

Mr Biden faces a conundrum.

He can forge ahead on his own with the slim Democratic majorities in both chambers by using the budget reconciliation process allowing the Senate to bypass its traditional 60-vote threshold for legislation. That’s the same partisan process Republicans used to pass their tax code overhaul in 2017.

Or Mr Biden, whose calls for “unity” upon taking office last month dominated headlines, could continue negotiating with the Republican group led by Ms Collins and produce a bipartisan compromise bill.

While both the administration’s and GOP’s proposals include billions of dollars for many of the same Covid-era programmes, Mr Biden’s package generally allocates more funding. 

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the bills on the top-line issues:

Stimulus checks

Biden plan: Full $1,400 payments to every individual taxpayer, with no income-based limit. Mr Biden has signalled he is willing to negotiate an upper income limit to target relief. The last Covid relief bill phased out beginning with Americans who make $75,000.

GOP plan: Full $1,000 payments to individuals making $40,000 or less. The amount begins phasing out up to those making $50,000.

Federal unemployment insurance

Biden plan: A federal supplement of $400 per week, extended through September, on top of what jobless Americans get from state unemployment programmes.

GOP plan: A federal supplement of $300 per week, extended through June, on top of what jobless Americans get from state unemployment programmes.

K-12 schools

Biden plan: Aid worth $130bn to help schools re-open for in-person classes.

GOP plan: Aid worth $20bn.

Other education (including colleges and universities)

Biden plan: An extra $45bn to help re-open for in-person classes.

GOP plan: No extra funding.

Child tax credit

Biden plan: Would raise the federal child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000.

GOP plan: Would not raise the child tax credit.

Minimum wage

Biden plan: Would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

GOP plan: Would not change the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

State and local government aid

Biden plan: An emergency allocation of $350bn.

GOP plan: None.

Child care

Biden plan: $40bn in various programs.

GOP plan: $20bn in a childcare and development block grant.

Small business

Biden plan: An injection of $50bn into various lending and relief programmes.

GOP plan: The same — an injection of $50bn into various lending and relief programmes.

National vaccine programme

Biden plan: $20bn.

GOP plan: $20bn.

National testing ramp-up

Biden plan: $50bn.

GOP plan: $50bn.

Disaster relief fund

Biden plan: $30bn.

GOP plan: $30bn.

A matter of ‘urgency’ 

Time is of the essence, and Mr Biden has a bias for spending too much versus spending too little, he and his aides have made clear in recent days.

“The risk is not that it is too big — this package — the risk is that it is too small. That remains his view, and it’s one he’ll certainly express today,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing with reporters on Monday, just hours before Mr Biden was scheduled to meet with the GOP senators.

"There is obviously a big gap between 600 billion and 1.9 trillion,” Ms Psaki added. “I don't believe any of us are mathematicians, but clearly the amount needs to be closer to what he proposed than smaller.”

Ms Psaki declined to declare a specific deadline on when the administration would dispense with negotiations with Republicans and move forward with the partisan budget reconciliation process to pass a partisan relief bill.

“It's incredibly urgent,” she said of more Covid relief, noting that Mr Biden will also be speaking with congressional Democrats, who are moving ahead in both chambers as early as this week to pass partisan legislation with the contours of Mr Biden’s $1.9trn proposal.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has balked at the $618bn  proposal from the 10 Republican senators, suggesting the GOP package wasn’t even worth using as a starting point on negotiations since Mr Biden wants three times more.

“They should negotiate with us, not make a take-it-or-leave-it offer,” Mr Schumer told the New York Daily News on Sunday.

Mr Schumer is still haunted by the frustrations of 2009 and 2010, when Barack Obama and some Senate Democrats insisted on using bipartisan legislative processes for an economic stimulus package to help the US recover from the Great Recession as well as an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

“We cannot do the mistake of 2009 where they whittled down the programme so that the amount of relief was so small that the recession lasted four or five years,” Mr Schumer told the NYDN.

“And then on the [Affordable Care Act], when they spent a year, a year and a half negotiating, and then didn't come to any agreement.”