Rep. Brady: Dems’ New Stimulus Plan a ‘Recipe for a Prolonged Recession’

The priority right now, according to Brady: “Our main economic focus has to be making sure those 30 million Americans who’ve lost their jobs temporarily don’t lose their jobs permanently.”

Reopening the economy “is about helping our businesses rebuild their workforce and helping them remake their workplaces so that it’s safe for both workers and customers,” Brady said on the webcast.

Before rushing into another “spending spree,” Brady said, the challenge is ensuring that the $2.5 trillion or more that Congress has allocated gets “to the communities and health care providers that we [Congress] intended to help.”

Retirement Savings Boost

As to retirement policy, “a lot of people have seen their retirement savings significantly depleted because of this” pandemic, Brady said. “It’s important that we help them replenish it.”

Brady said he’s currently hashing over these remedies with House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass.:

• Increasing the limits on retirement savings over the next year or so;
• Raising the total amount that workers can save as well as the total amount employers can help employees save;
• Eliminating the age requirement so that every worker can make catch-up provisions over the next several years to replenish their retirement accounts.

On health care: “We think we can make some changes to provide more flexibility for the health savings accounts and the flexible savings accounts to allow them to be increased over the next year,” Brady said.

Neal wants to do Retirement 2.0. “I agree,” Brady said.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

• House Democrats Unveil $3 Trillion Aid Bill With Cash for States
• IRS: 6 Reasons a Stimulus Check Could Be Less Than Expected
• Jeremy Siegel: Congress May Compromise on State COVID-19 Aid