Striking a far more progressive, if not "angrier" tone, Vice President Joe Biden proposes government spending "a hell of a lot bigger" than the $2 trillion passed in Phase 3, including Green New Deal initiatives.
Also, Biden told Politico in an exclusive interview, he seeks more government intervention in the spending of stimulus and bailouts, despite ripping the Trump administration for "wasting a hell of a lot of money."
"I wanted to bring in the toughest son-of-a-b**** in the country — I really mean it, I'm not joking — because we wanted to make sure we did it by the numbers with genuine oversight,” Biden told Politico of his recommendations amid President Barack Obama's $800 billion Recovery Act in 2009. "Right now, there's no oversight.
"[President Donald Trump] made it real clear he doesn't have any damn interest in being checked. The last thing he wants is anyone watching that $500 billion going to corporate America, for God's sake."
Biden does share a Republican contention the small business Payroll Protection Program needed a boost in last week's "Phase 3.5," but it cannot go to big banks and big companies.
"We knew from the beginning that the big banks don't like lending to small businesses," Biden told Politico of his stimulus/bailout experience from the Great Recession. "I'm telling you, though, if Main Street businesses don't get help, they're gone."
Biden added he expects Democrats will be able to use Republicans' unwillingness to bail out broke blue states against the GOP in further negotiations, if not the down-ballot 2020 races.
"They got what they could get," Biden told Politico of Democrats being able to secure state and local government aid from Congress' latest bill. "I've been in too many negotiations to second-guess anybody else's."
While Biden is quick to second-guess the Trump administration, though, he does agree on one potential stimulus bill on long-needed "trillion-dollar infrastructure program that can be implemented really rapidly."
The Trump campaign, responding to Politico's interview, shot back Biden is using the coronavirus pandemic to pile on calls for spending for Green New Deal agenda items.
"Joe Biden helped preside over the worst economic recovery since World War II, so economic advice from him is not exactly a hot commodity," Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Politico.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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