Following the passage of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan in the Senate, economists, experts, and lawmakers praised the “transformative” and historic piece of legislation. 

From Senator Sanders, to Senator Warren, to Paul Krugman, read their praise of highlights of the package that will create 7 million jobs, cut child poverty in half, make health care more affordable, and save lives and livelihoods. 

President Biden’s American Rescue Plan is being lauded as the boldest, most ambitious economic package in recent history. 

Erza Klein: “I’m open to counterexamples, but this still looks like the most ambitious and progressive economic package congress has passed in my lifetime. it will do more to cut poverty, and push full employment, than anything else I’ve covered.”

Ezra Klein in the New York Times: “The American Rescue Plan is a bolder, more progressive, economic package than anything a Democratic president has proposed since L.B.J. But it is not, for now, a polarizing package. It’s less polarizing even than Biden, who only polls at 12 percent among Republicans. You could chalk that up to its popular component parts, but the Affordable Care Act’s individual policies were popular, too, and the bill polled at around 40 percent. You could say it’s the coronavirus crisis, but coronavirus policy is sharply polarized. I suspect Biden’s calmer approach to political communication is opening space for a bolder agenda.”

David Dayen in the American Prospect: “It’s a bill that creates, as its predecessor legislative efforts did, a pop-up safety net for those struggling in the COVID-19 crisis. And it puts a down payment on reversing 40 years of inequitable treatment for the middle class in America.”

Washington Post’s Jeff Stein: “The new Senate plan does not reduce the anti poverty impact of Biden’s stimulus, Columbia researchers @ZParolin tell me & @byHeatherLong. At either $400 or $300 of UI, official poverty rate drops from 12.3% to 8.3% under Democratic plan.”

New York Times’ Paul Krugman: “The great bulk of the proposed outlays will go to extremely worthy causes — shots in arms, reopened schools, sustaining the unemployed, avoiding cuts in crucial services, and more. Compared with real-world bills of the past, this one is amazingly good”

Experts are also noting that Biden’s plan continues to be overwhelmingly supported by the American people, making it “one of the most popular pieces of major legislation in American history.”

Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “The intense opposition to this measure from Republican lawmakers illustrates a gulf between them and ordinary Americans, including their own voters. The American Rescue Plan is wildly popular. A poll from Morning Consult says that a whopping 77% of Americans support the bill, including 59% of Republicans, making it one of the most popular pieces of major legislation in American history.”

And while Senate Republicans tried to delay the passage of benefits and payments Americans need, Democratic Senators kept their promise to deliver relief to working families. 

Senator Ed Markey: “We are still up and fighting for a bold relief package that meets the scale of this crisis and will do whatever it takes to deliver for the American people.”

Senator Sherrod Brown: “Do not lose sight of this fact: We are on the cusp of passing the most transformative relief bill in our nation’s history. When we pass the American Rescue Plan, we’ll keep our promise to the American people to defeat this virus and improve people’s lives.”

Senator Bernie Sanders: “As Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I am proud that we passed the American Rescue Plan, which, in my view, is the most significant piece of legislation to benefit working families in the modern history of this country.”

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