Biden's Economic Agenda and Your Personal Finances
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What changes could Biden's unified control of Washington bring to personal finances?
Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, January 12th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. When Joe Biden is sworn in as the new U.S. president on January 20th, Democrats will have control of the White House as well as both houses of Congress for the first time in more than a decade. That could mean significant policy shifts, including many that will affect your personal finances. Near the top of the list, the possibility of additional stimulus payments.
This is definitely something people are paying very close attention to. There was a lot of drama late last year when the House passed a bill for stimulus payments to increase to $2,000, but it ultimately ran out of time and faced a lot of opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Our personal finance team has been keeping tabs on the likelihood of more stimulus money for Americans and other potential changes that could affect American savings, retirement accounts, student loans, and taxes. Editor Bray Lamb will join us to break it all down after the break.
Next week, Democrats will take control of the White House and Congress while the country is still in the grips of a pandemic. Joe Biden and Democratic legislative leaders have promised more financial relief for Americans. But how likely are Biden's policies to get through Congress and become reality?
How likely are additional stimulus payments like $2,000 or $1,400 to be approved?
Our personal finance editor, Beret Lam, and her team have been tracking this, and she joins me now to discuss. Beret, thanks for being here. Thanks, JR. So Democrats will have control of the White House and all of Congress for the first time in more than a decade. They've had control of these two branches of government before. What makes this time different?
I think this time it's the composition of their control, right? So we know that they have a narrow, narrow margin of control. And so even with the control of the White House and Congress, which will make Joe Biden's legislative agenda much easier to pass, they will still have to convince the moderates. They still will have to make sure everybody supports whatever legislation they're trying to do for personal finance. And there's quite a few different things with different support from different people. And so I think this narrow lead makes it a little bit different this time in terms of the ambition of their legislative agenda.
Okay, so let's start with stimulus payments. That's on a lot of people's minds. You know, after a lot of debate, most Americans got $600 a few weeks ago. But is there any more stimulus likely to be approved?
So on stimulus checks, this is definitely something people are paying very close attention to. There was a lot of drama late last year when the House passed a bill for stimulus payments to increase to $2,000, but it ultimately ran out of time and faced a lot of opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate. But last week, Senator Chuck Schumer said that this is one of the first moves that Democrats will make, which is to pass legislation authorizing $2,000 payments to Americans.
Will the federal student-loan payment and interest pause be extended past January 31?
And this is something that they are going to be seeking once they take control of Congress. So I think this is interesting in two ways. One is many people have wondered, and it's still an open question, whether he means a full $2,000 payment or $1,400, seeing that Americans already have gotten $600. And so that's an open question. Another very interesting point that my colleague Rich Rubin makes is that a lot of upper income households who haven't received money in the previous two rounds could get a partial payment due to the income limits. And so if the income limits are the same, or even if they change, that could qualify some higher income households for a partial payment.
And, you know, along with stimulus checks, the suspension of federal student loan payments has freed up money for Americans to use and to pay their bills and to stay afloat. But that expires at the end of January. Any word on that being extended?
Yes. So this is a question, I would say, of the personal finance questions we get just on social media.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What changes could Biden's unified control of Washington bring to personal finances?
0:05–1:24
2
How likely are additional stimulus payments like $2,000 or $1,400 to be approved?
1:24–3:04
3
Will the federal student-loan payment and interest pause be extended past January 31?
3:04–4:26
4
Can the Biden administration use executive action to forgive student loan debt?
4:26–7:46
5
Are CARES Act retirement withdrawals and penalty-free rules likely to continue?
7:46–9:41
6
What retirement-saving reforms are in the proposed bipartisan bill and will it pass?
9:41–10:21
Speakers
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