Biden Signs $1.9 Trillion Relief Bill Before Speech To Nation

Speaker 1: 00:00 Today president Joe Biden signed one of the largest spending packages in us history. The $1.9 trillion stimulus bill dubbed, the American rescue plan invests in people, businesses, and communities in an effort to boost the nation out of its COVID economic recession. It also contains billions of dollars to help States and counties increase their vaccination programs. Most San Diego gins are expected to benefit from the stimulus payments and local businesses. And governments are busy planning how to use this federal economic boost. Joining me is Ray major chief economist for the San Diego association of governments. Ray, welcome to the program. Thanks very much for having me. How much has the San Diego region been hoping for this stimulus? Speaker 2: 00:47 Well, from a regional perspective, I think we have been anticipating and hoping that some type of relief would come as you know, California and San Diego in particular, um, is still being impacted by COVID and the economic ramifications of that with the, the lockdowns and stay at home orders. And so this type of revenue is going to be a big relief for a lot of businesses and individuals, as well as the local government. How Speaker 1: 01:14 Much can we expect from this package? Speaker 2: 01:16 There's no way to know exactly how much is going to come to San Diego. But if you figure that we are about 1% of the nation's population, we could be seeing something on the order of $19 billion coming to the region. Speaker 1: 01:31 Wow. What part of this rescue plan would you say is most needed by the San Diego Speaker 2: 01:36 In terms of what's most needed? It's really the relief to individuals whose businesses are still impacted and closed. That went from my perspective would be the number one thing that the stimulus is going to help. So the direct payments to those people who are not able to operate their businesses fully, there is also additional monies that are coming to the local governments, like the cities within our region, which will be used to, uh, alleviate any budget deficits that they may have accrued last year. Speaker 1: 02:06 Now lawmakers say the bulk of this relief bill will be geared toward helping those hardest hit by the pandemic economic fallout. Do you agree in looking at this stimulus package? Speaker 2: 02:17 It doesn't really look that way. From my perspective, there is some money that's going directly to people, but there's a tremendous amount of, of other monies in this particular plan that aren't going directly to, to, to help with the, with the COVID crisis. Speaker 1: 02:33 Well talk, talk to us about the stimulus checks. We've heard an awful lot about them. Will most San Diego, do you think beginning some money? Speaker 2: 02:40 Well, it looks like many San Diego hands are going to be getting some money because a, it looks like a family making as much as $150,000 would be getting some type of stimulus check. So in that particular case, it looks like there will be a lot of money being distributed to individuals within the County. A family Speaker 1: 03:00 Of four eligible for a stimulus check can expect up to $5,600. How significant is that for low-income families, Speaker 2: 03:10 For low-income families, that's going to be a huge amount of money. It's represents maybe 20 in some cases, 30% of their total income for the year. Uh, this type of money really allows people to not only continue to pay their rent and to be able to feed their families, but it also gives people a sense of security that, that the economy is doing. Okay. Speaker 1: 03:35 And how do you see that kind of stimulus, that kind of confidence that kind of spending from low-income families, helping the overall economy, Speaker 2: 03:44 The economic stimulus to work. People need to spend that money and pump it back into the economy and support local businesses. And I think that's really where this, this money helps. So if you give the low income families in the region, this additional $5,600, then they will be able to spend money in the economy and then that supports other businesses. So from that perspective, it's going to help, uh, keep some of the bolster, a lot of the smaller businesses here in the region, but also keep these families afloat through the rest of this pandemic crisis. Speaker 1: 04:18 And what kind of help does this stimulus package have directly for small businesses? Speaker 2: 04:23 It was $813 billion in a paycheck protection program, which would go directly to small businesses supporting, uh, the employment at those establishments. Speaker 1: 04:34 Last time, much of the federal stimulus money was gobbled up by bigger businesses. Are there any new guidelines in place to ensure that won't happen again? Speaker 2: 04:42 I haven't seen any new guidelines that would keep large businesses from, uh, participating in these programs. I think the biggest problem is that small businesses have a hard time applying for these type of programs and when they do, um, you know, there, there needs to be some follow through. So hopefully those, those, uh, guidelines have been streamlined to help the smaller businesses. I don't have any direct knowledge. That's the case though? Speaker 1: 05:11 How will the stimulus help with COVID vaccinations? Speaker 2: 05:15 Well, there is some money in there to help with COVID vaccination. And so that's great. And some COVID research, but again, right now the biggest thing is getting the, the allocation of vaccines. I think that the vaccines are available. The federal government, uh, needs to do more, to get those vaccines here into the region and to allow the general population to be vaccinated. Speaker 1: 05:39 What kind of an impact has the pandemic and the shutdowns had on the San Diego regional economy? Speaker 2: 05:47 Well, there've been a lot of impacts on the San Diego economy from a personal level, from a people level. What you're looking at is nearly a hundred thousand people who are still unemployed because of this COVID pandemic. Many people have gone back to work, but when you take a look at certain sectors in our economy, particularly looking at, for instance, the hospitality industry, which includes the retail sector, uh, the, you know, restaurants and, and hotel motel, we see about 50,000 people who still haven't gone back to work over there. Uh, in education we see about 21,000 people who haven't been able to return to work and another 14,000 people in, in, in the retail industry. So a lot of impact when it comes to, to local people, not, um, you know, having a job here in the region Speaker 1: 06:36 With this stimulus package, some economists are predicting as much as 7% growth in the U S economy this year. Do you agree? And do you think we're going to see that in San Diego? Speaker 2: 06:48 I think we're going to see tremendous growth. And part of that, the reason is that everybody is ready to get back to work and the economy is ready to open. So as soon as you have, uh, the, the go-ahead from the state government to start traveling again, for instance, and everybody's vaccinated, I think you're going to see a huge bump in tourism, which is going to bring a tremendous amount of money back here into San Diego. But, um, with this much money being pumped into the economy, you will absolutely see growth. But with that, you will probably also start to see inflation, uh, back in the economy, which we haven't seen for many years. Speaker 1: 07:23 I have been speaking with Ray major chief economist for the San Diego association of governments. Ray, thank you very much. Speaker 2: 07:31 You're very welcome. Thank you for having me.