US economy is recovering faster than expected: Biden

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden said the US economy is recovering from the pandemic faster and stronger than expected, after a report showing the labour market got back on track last month with broad-based payroll gains.
“America is getting back to work; our economy is starting to work for more Americans,” Biden said at the White House.
“Our economy is on the move,” he added, calling the recovery “historically strong.”
Nonfarm payrolls increased 531,000 last month, beating an estimate of 450,000, a Labour Department report showed. The data also show large upward revisions to the prior two months. The unemployment rate falls to 4.6% while the labour force participation rate was unchanged.

House Passes Historic Infrastructure Bill in Win for Biden
The House passed the biggest US infrastructure package in decades, marking a victory for President Joe Biden and unleashing $550 billion of fresh spending on roads, bridges, public transit and other projects in coming years.
The vote was 228-206 and sends the legislation to Biden for his signature. Thirteen Republicans supported the bill and six Democrats voted against it, a sign of the intra-party strains that nearly derailed the legislation. It would not have passed without GOP votes.
The president, in a statement early Saturday, called the bill’s passage “a monumental step forward as a nation.”
Biden plans to make remarks on both bills. In the statement, he said he looked forward to signing them into law and “generations from now, people will look back and know this is when America won the economic competition for the 21st century.”
The public-works bill totals more than $1.2 trillion when routine highway dollars are factored in. Biden has promoted it as a vital step to taking on the challenge of a rising China, and a test of Washington’s policy making abilities in a time of sharp partisan divides.
The so-called reconciliation bill, providing an expansion of spending on social programs and measures to address climate change along with higher taxes on companies and the wealthy, now totals more than $1.75 trillion, down from an earlier $3.5 trillion.
The Senate had passed the $550 billion infrastructure plan on Aug. 10 on a bipartisan 69 to 30 vote. Nineteen Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined with all 50 senators who caucus with Democrats to support the bill.
Biden has argued that his bills will ease barriers to re-entering the labour force, including by providing child care subsidies. However, the legislation would still need to pass the Senate, which could take weeks or months after Democrat Joe Manchin, a key deciding vote, called for a delay.
The October employment data paint a sunnier picture of the job market than previously thought, with Covid-19 cases easing and higher wages helping employers fill near-record openings. “Beating Covid-19 remains one of the most important ways to strengthen our economy,” he said.