Inside Biden and Yellen’s Meeting with Major CEOs – and What’s Next for That $75,000 Stimulus Cap

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met yesterday with several CEOs to discuss the state of the economy and Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
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The meeting included JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon; Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison; Walmart CEO Doug McMillon; Gap CEO Sonya Syngal; and U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue.
“I’ve invited in some of the leading business people in America to come in and talk about the state of the economy, our recovery package,” Biden said in remarks before the meeting. “The American people are hurting. There’s a lot of people who are in real, real trouble. A lot of people going to bed at night, staring at the ceiling wondering whether they’re going to be in that apartment the next day, or if they’re going to be evicted, or if they’re going to keep their mortgage payment up, if they’re going to have any health insurance. We got millions of people unemployed,” Biden said.
See: Congress in Talks to Lower Eligibility for Stimulus Checks, Enraging Many Americans
Find: $1,400 Stimulus Checks Are Still Coming – But Who’s Eligible to Get One?
JPMorgan’s Dimon said in a statement after the meeting that the group had a “constructive and detailed conversation” that covered topics including “the urgent struggles of so many Americans, a path to sustainable and equitable economic recovery, and the future of American competitiveness,” according to MarketWatch.
“Walmart is, of course, one of the biggest employers in the country and states across the country. Obviously, Jamie Dimon is somebody who has been in the business sector for many, many years,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing yesterday. “It’s more of a discussion about the country and the economic downturn that we’ve gone through. The President wants to lay out all of the specifics of his plan, hear feedback from them, as he has with many different groups over the past couple of weeks.”
See: Poll Shows Most Americans Support $1,400 Stimulus Payments as Relief Package Nears Approval
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Asked about the threshold for the eligibility of the $1,400 checks, an issue at the center of the stimulus debate, Biden said in his remarks that he agreed about the “$75,000 cap.”
This statement was echoed by Psaki, who said “he’s open to targeting.”
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