Chief of Staff Ron Klain: White House hopes to revive Trump’s plan to post masks to Americans

“This was an idea that came to mind last year in the Trump administration – the public health agencies recommended it, President Trump banned it for some reason,” Klain told Lester Holt at NBC. “We want to get this back on track. Hopefully in the next few days, or next week, we may be able to name some progress on this.”

The convenience of Biden’s administration regarding the proposal comes after U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky appeared to question whether he was wearing American masks for sure to convince those not. were already wearing them. When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week if it made sense for the federal government to send masks to American homes, she replied “It’s not entirely clear to me that this is why people don’t wear masks because they don’t have access to them. “

“Certainly, I would strongly advocate for those in areas where they do not have adequate facilities and cannot afford masks or do not have access to masks, we need to ensure that people are protected,” Walensky continued. ‘But it’s not entirely clear to me that the challenge of wearing a mask is accessibility. ”

On Thursday, Klain again defended the administration ‘s target of vaccinating 100 million people for Covid – 19 in its first 100 days, telling Holt that “we are trying to ramp up vaccine production and circulation. – we will have more to say about the targets that follow. ”

President Joe Biden said last week that he expects the U.S. to be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day, raising the bar with about 500,000 more vaccines than the target of 1 million per day in his first 100 days in office. He said the U.S. could exceed that original target in about three weeks.

Klain reiterated Holt’s point that the Trump administration managed to deliver 1 million doses of vaccine per day, saying that “the Trump administration hit a million strokes a day one day out of 40.”

According to data from the CDC, vaccine administration hit 1 million daily on Jan. 7, and while it saw under and over 1 million per day in the last two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, the line grew to clear.
Klain also addressed talks about Covid ‘s $ 1.9 trillion relief proposal at Biden Vs. A much smaller package of Senate Republicans, declaring openness to a greater distribution of relief studies to families in need.

“A question has been raised about whether these surveys should go to people who make $ 200,000, $ 300,000,” Klain said. “I think if Congress has ideas on how you can target this to ensure that working people, middle-class people, in this country get those surveys, we’re fine with that. that idea. “

“What we are going to do is leave big middle class oaths, and of course we are not going to jeopardize and reduce the number of such inspections,” he said.

The GOP plan would provide $ 1,000 incentive checks for those making up to $ 40,000 a year, and cut off individuals earning more than $ 50,000 a year and couples earning more than $ 100,000, which according to an information page provided by a Republican office. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who acted Sunday with nine other Republicans.
Under Biden ‘s proposal, people earning less than $ 75,000 would receive $ 1,400 incentive studies and double that for couples earning less than $ 150,000, and payments would gradually disappear. That would cover 99% of taxpayers earning between $ 77,100 and $ 110,700, according to a study by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation – while only 8% of taxpayers in that brake would be eligible for a plan GOP.

About 78% of households would be eligible for relief payments under the Republican proposal, while 95% would be eligible under the Biden proposal, according to analysts at Penn Wharton’s Budget Model, who warned that the figures are predictive since there is no statutory text formal still available.

Katie Lobosco from CNN and Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.

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