U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Senate Democrats had just managed to get passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill (“American Rescue Plan”).
BREAKING: Senate Democrats just passed the American Rescue Plan and big, bold COVID relief for people across this country.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 6, 2021
Moments later, Bitcoin started rally, and by 14:05 UTC on Sunday (March 7), on crypto exchange Bitstamp, the BTC price had reached $51,306, which is so far today’s intraday high. This means that the Bitcoin price is up 8.02% in the past 24-hour period and up 76.92% in the year-to-date period.
According to data by CryptoCompare, currently (i.e. as of 13:40 UTC on March 7), Bitcoin is trading around $50,679, up 6.90% in the past 24-hour period and up 74.92% in the year-to-date period.
Anthony Pompliano (aka “Pomp”), a co-founder of crypto-focused asset management firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets, had this to say about what he thinks will be the effect of this huge fiscal stimulus bill finally getting passed by U.S. Congress:
Senate just approved another $1.9 trillion to pump asset prices to the moon and push the bottom 45% of Americans with no investable assets further into despair.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) March 6, 2021
According to a report by CNBC published yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives, which is also controlled by Democrats, plans to pass this bill on Tuesday (March 9), after which it will be sent to U.S. President Joe Biden, so that he can sign it (before “a March 14 deadline to renew unemployment aid programs”) and make it into law. The report went on to say that this legislation “includes direct payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans, a $300 weekly boost to jobless benefits into September and an expansion of the child tax credit for one year.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the following statement in a press release issued yesterday:
“Today is a day of great progress and promise for the American people, as the Democratic Senate has passed President Biden’s American Rescue Plan to save lives and livelihoods. The House now hopes to have a bipartisan vote on this life-saving legislation and urges Republicans to join us in recognition of the devastating reality of this vicious virus and economic crisis and of the need for decisive action.
“The American Rescue Plan takes a tremendous step forward to defeat the virus and provide relief to families and small businesses in need. It honors our heroes – our health care workers, food, sanitation and transportation workers, and teachers – who are on the frontlines on the state and local level. It crushes the virus with the equitable and immediate distribution of the vaccine. And it puts our children safely back in school and puts workers back on the job. Overall, this coronavirus-centric legislation puts nearly a trillion dollars in the pockets of America’s families.“
