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Biden Heads to Columbus, Ohio to Tout 1.9 Trillion Covid Stimulus Plan
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March 23, 2021
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2:29Now PlayingPresident Joe Biden will travel to Ohio on Tuesday to promote his $1.9 trillion stimulus, as Democrats take aim at a Senate seat that will be open in next year’s midterm elections.
The trip is Biden’s first to sell the American Rescue Plan in a state he lost in November. In a show of bipartisanship, the president will be greeted at the Columbus airport by Mike DeWine, the state’s Republican governor who is favored to win re-election next year.
Ohio has long been considered a swing state in presidential elections, but Republicans have consolidated control in state-level elections in recent years. Biden lost Ohio by eight points in November to former President Donald Trump.
But Democrats -- who won Ohio with Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections -- see an opening after a surprise announcement by Republican Senator Rob Portman that he would not seek re-election.
Before departing Washington, Biden plans to comment on the killing of 10 people at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, according to the White House.
During his trip, Biden is scheduled to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health-care legislation known as Obamacare. He will also promote the health-care benefits of his stimulus plan.
Biden has faced criticism for passing the stimulus without a single GOP vote. But the package, which ensured $1,400 payments to middle and low income families, remains popular with Americans.
The measure increases subsidies for Americans who purchase insurance on state exchanges created under Obamacare, with the administration projecting that premiums will decrease on average $50 per month. The tax credits will become available next month and automatically apply to new enrollees; existing customers can update their plans to lower premiums.
Coupled with an extended special enrollment period until May 15, the tax credits have bolstered Obamacare after sustained efforts by the Trump administration to undermine the program. The Biden stimulus will also provide the opportunity for any American who received a week of unemployment benefits in 2021 to receive health-care insurance without paying a premium.
Biden and other top administration officials have fanned across the country to promote the benefits of the bill, with aides saying the president believes that promoting it is an important way to both restore faith in the federal government and accrue political momentum as he readies a push for an approximately $3 trillion package of Democratic priorities.
Biden has said that the Obama administration did not do enough to trumpet the advantages of legislation it helped craft, including the stimulus bill passed in response to the Great Recession.
That travel has largely focused on electorally significant swing states. On Tuesday, second gentleman Doug Emhoff was in Nebraska’s second congressional district – which went for Biden under the state’s split electoral system – while Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra traveled to Nevada.
During those trips, the White House has sought to highlight businesses and individuals that received direct assistance from the federal government. The hospital Biden plans to visit Tuesday received a $100 million grant under Obamacare to upgrade its oncology department, allowing it to increase the number of patients treated for cancer.
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