LAS VEGAS -- From a vaccination site in the desert West to a grade school on the Eastern Seaboard, President Joe Biden's top messengers -- his vice president and wife among them -- led a cross-country effort Monday to highlight the benefits of the huge covid relief plan.
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Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses are embarked on an ambitious tour this week to promote the $1.9 trillion plan as a way to battle the pandemic and boost the economy.
The road show -- dubbed the "Help is here" tour by the White House -- began with Harris visiting a covid-19 vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas and first lady Jill Biden touring a New Jersey elementary school. Biden himself heads out today.
"We want to avoid a situation where people are unaware of what they're entitled to," Harris said at the culinary academy. "It's not selling it; it literally is letting people know their rights. Think of it more as a public education campaign."
The White House is wasting no time promoting the relief plan, which Biden signed into law last week, looking to build momentum for the rest of his agenda and anxious to avoid the mistakes of 2009 in boosting that year's recovery effort. Even veterans of Barack Obama's administration acknowledge that they did not do enough then to showcase their economic stimulus package.
The president Monday also announced that he had chosen Gene Sperling, a longtime Democratic economic policy expert, to oversee the stimulus package, the role Biden himself played for the 2009 rescue package. The goal, Biden said, is to "stay on top of every dollar spent."
Biden stayed back in Washington for a day, declaring that "hope is here in real and tangible ways." He said the new government spending will bankroll efforts that could allow the nation to emerge from the pandemic's twin crises, health and economic.
Biden said that within 10 days, his administration will clear two important benchmarks: distributing 100 million stimulus payments and administering 100 million vaccine doses since he took office. To commemorate those milestones, Biden and his top representatives are embarking on their most ambitious travel schedule of his young presidency, visiting a series of potential election battleground states this week.
The sales pitch was leaving Republicans cold.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the target of doses that Biden set when he took office as "not some audacious goal" but just the pace that he inherited. And he mocked Biden's talk of Americans working toward merely being able to gather in small groups by the Fourth of July as "bizarre."
The Biden plan cleared Congress without any backing from Republicans, despite polling that found broad public support. Republicans argued that the bill was too expensive, especially with vaccinations making progress against the virus, and included too many provisions not directly linked to the pandemic.
Biden will head to Pennsylvania today and then join Harris in Georgia on Friday. Others on his team are visiting the electorally important states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and New Hampshire. The trip Monday marked Harris' first official journey in office and included an unscheduled stop at a vegan taco stand as well as a coffee stand at the Culinary Academy Las Vegas.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, "We want to take some time to engage directly with the American people and make sure they understand the benefits of the package and how it is going to help them get through this difficult period of time."
Jill Biden was joined by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on a tour Monday of Samuel Smith Elementary School in Burlington, where she highlighted steps the school took to reopen.
But her tour revealed the challenges ahead: In one classroom she visited, only two students were there for in-person learning while the other 17 were virtual. The first lady sat down at a computer to say hello to the remote learners.
"I just love being here at a school again: Educators, parents and students, the entire school has come together to bring kids back to the classroom," she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Hope Yen of The Associated Press.
