Day 51: Biden Makes His Goal

The American discourse has changed towards hope, as United States Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen announced that stimulus checks are to be distributed beginning this weekend and as President Biden surpasses his goal of 100 million vaccinations within his first 100 days.

With many uniting around the passage of the American Rescue Plan, including Independents and Republicans, new trends emerged on social media as the nation marks the halfway point. “BidenCalm,” “MoneybagJoe,” and “BidenBucks” are among the trending topics that emerged along with memes celebrating the coming stimulus — an event now affectionately known as “Stimmy Eve.”

“Over 430 mayors contacted me — many of them Republicans — supporting the bill,” Biden said during a press conference at the White House Rose Garden.

“When I look out over what happened the last 50 days, when Jill and I first got a chance to move into this magnificent building behind you, I promised the American people — and I guess it’s becoming an overused phrase — that, ‘help was on the way.’ But today with the American Rescue Plan now signed into law, we’ve delivered on that promise. I don’t mean, ‘I’ve delivered.’ We’ve delivered,” he said.

“Importantly, this bill includes state-, city-, and county-level fiscal relief for the District, since D.C. provides each level of service, and $755 million in retroactive CARES Act fiscal relief to fix D.C.’s treatment as a territory instead of a state for fiscal relief in the CARES Act,” Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said via statement. “D.C. is almost always treated as a state for federal funding purposes because its residents pay full federal taxes.

“Last year at this time, D.C. endured a gut punch when, during the beginning of a catastrophic, unpredictable pandemic, Senate Republicans deliberately withheld funding from the District by categorizing it as a territory instead of a state for fiscal relief in the CARES Act,” Norton continued.

Hundreds of businesses have permanently or temporarily shuttered in the nation’s capital, in the wake of the pandemic.

In Minnesota, the City of Minneapolis settled a civil lawsuit with $27 million — the largest settlement to date — to the estate of George Floyd.