Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2021

May 5, 2021

One of my goals with the American Rescue Plan is to make sure that we get this law's benefits quickly and directly to the American people. So before I say a bit more about what we're doing to support our Nation's restaurants, let me provide an update on what is happening through the American Rescue Plan right now, as I speak.

First, it's providing checks in pockets and shots in arms. More than 163 million rescue payments have already gone out. These are checksâdirect payments of up to $1,400âthat, for a typical family of four making about $110,000, means a $5,600 check you'll get. By the time all of the money is distributed, more than 85 percent of American households will have received a check.

The Rescue Plan is also funding vaccine administration and distribution. It's a big reason why we were able to administer over 220 million shots in my first 100 days, a pace unmatched by any other nation in the world or in prior mass vaccinations in all of American history.

You know, it's helped schools reopen safely. It's helping childcare centers stay in business. It's helping families pay for childcare. The Rescue Plan is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger. And hunger is already sharply down in the United States.

It's also providing rental assistance to keep people from being evicted from their homes, it's making health care more affordable, it's cutting child poverty in this country in half, and the list goes on. And the message is clear: Help is here.

And the bottom line is this: The American Rescue Plan is working. America is getting vaccinated. Job creation is soaring. The economy is growing. And our country is on the move again.

But some of the parts of theâof our economy need special help. At the top of that list is our Nation's restaurants. When the COVIDâ19 pandemic struck, our Nation's restaurants were some of the first hit and the worst hit. In 2020, more than 2,300âexcuse me, 2 millionâ2.3 million restaurant's jobs disappearedâ2.3 million restaurant jobs disappeared.

Restaurants are more than a major driver of our economy, they're woven into the fabric of our communities. And so, for many families, restaurants are the gateway to opportunity, a key part of the American story. There are families of all races, all ethnic backgrounds, all nationalities in this country who have built their American Dream around a family-owned restaurant. And for more workers, their own story of economic progress starts in a restaurant.

In the restaurant I just visited, Rogelio Martinez, who immigrated to this country 17 years ago, started working as a meatpacker. Now he's the restaurant's lead butcher and one of its owners.

For nearly one in three Americans, a restaurantâthis is hard to believeâbut for one in three Americans, a restaurant provided their first job. More than half of all Americans have worked in a restaurant at some point in their lives.

Before the pandemic, restaurants and bars employed 12 percentâ12 percentâof all the workers in our country. This is an industry that provided more opportunity for minority managers than any other industry in America. This is an industry where the staff feels like family and often is family.

When the pandemic hit, restaurant owners and operators were resilient, creative, and generous. Almost overnight, restaurants put in place safety measures to protect their employees and to protect us. They stepped up to feed our frontline workers. They changed their menus. They transitioned to takeout and delivery so they could be serving people who depended on them. But whenâbut even with the changes, many had to furlough or lay off workers or close entirely.

The restaurant I visited today went from 55 employees to just 7 before it started to bounce back. Now, as we vaccinate Americans, customers are coming back. And the vaccinationâour vaccination progress and our economic recovery is going hand in hand. As that happens, we want to make sure that our restaurants, bars, and other dining establishments can staff back up and they can come back as well.

Right now only about a quarter of the restaurant owners expect to return to normal operations in the next 6 months. We can do much better than that with the American Rescue Plan. The Restaurant Revitalization Fundâthat's what it's called, "Revitalization Fund"âwill provide direct relief to restaurants and to hard-hit food establishments: bars, bakeries, food stands, food trucks, and caterers.

Businesses that get grants can use it to cover payroll, rent, utilities, supplies, everything they need to startâto stay open and to reopen. We areâwe're opening the doors of this program forâ so that restaurants all over the country can open their doors again.

We start acceptingâwe started accepting applications on Monday. Today is Wednesday. We made it quick and easy to apply. Within the first 2 days, there were 186,200 applications from all 50 States for help. That's a staggering number.

Ninety-seven thousandâ97,600 of those applications came from businesses owned by women, veterans, and socio-economically disadvantaged individuals. Now, the applicationsâ they haven'tâall haven't been processed yet. But right now it looks like we'll be able to provide help to about 100,000 restaurants and other eligible businesses. When we passed the American Rescue Planâwe did thatâsome people said it wasn't needed. This response proves them wrong; it's badly needed.

About a year ago, when the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program opened up, a lot of the smallest firms saw the doors shut in their face. The law was written so that as we process these applicationsâthe new oneâthat we focus first on those who were left behind by the other relief programs.

And to make sure that relief is distributed fairly, we also set aside funds for the smallest restaurantsâbars, food trucks, and many family-owned restaurantsâthat haven't gotten any help to date, and they need it. That way, they don't have to compete above their "weight class" for these grants. Sixty-one thousandâsorry for all the numbers, but they're importantâ61,700 applications have come from the smaller bars and restaurants already. And I want to thank the Small Business Administrator, Isabel Guzman, for the work that she and her team are doing to make sure we get help quickly and fairly to the businesses that need it the most.

As I said, I've spoken to dozens of restaurants' owners about the challenges they face. But I've also received letters from people who want to tell me about the restaurant owners in their communities. I received one letter from a man who asked me to look out for a pair of local restaurant owners who he described as, quote, "the hardest working people I've ever met," end of quote.

Another letter was from a woman who wanted to tell me about how important the couple that ran the restaurant in her town near her was. She said they are, quote, the "strong, consistent foundation of our community," end of quote.

Whether it's our economy or our sense of community, we're relying on restaurants to play a big role in our recovery. If we want our economy to recover in a way that deals everyone in, then our restaurants need a seat at the tableâno pun intended. That's what we're giving them. That's what this program is about: a seat at the table.

This is another example of how we're putting the American Rescue Plan to work quickly and effectively and showing the American people that their Government can deliverâcan deliver for them again and do it without waste; that we can vaccinate this Nation; that we can get our kids safely back in school; that we can get our economy back on track by helping hundreds of thousands of small businesses reopen and stay open; that we can give the people of this Nation a fighting chance again. That's what this is all about.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you.

Q. President Biden, you said earlierââ

World Trade Organization

Q. President Biden, are you going to back the waiver of the Uâat the WTO? Are you going to back that? Is the U.S. Government going to back that?

The President. Yes, I'm going to talk about that later today. Yes.

Republican Party Leadership

Q. President Biden, you said earlier you "don't understand Republicans." [Laughter] What does it say about them if they oust Liz Cheney from leadership for telling the truth about the election?

The President. Look, it seems as though the Republican Party is trying to identify what it stands for. And they're in the midst of a significant, sort of, minirevolution going on in the Republican Party.

I've been a Democrat for a long time. We've gone through periods where we've had internal fights and disagreements. I don't ever remember any like this.

And so, as one of you saidâand I'm not embarrassed by identifying themâas one of you said on national television last night, we badly need a Republican Party. We need a two-party system. It's not healthy to have a one-party system.

And I think the Republicans are further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than I thought they would be at this point.

Senate Minority Leader A. Mitchell McConnell/Bipartisanship/Infrastructure and Jobs Legislation/Tax Code Reform

Q. Mr. President, Mitch McConnell said that he is 100-percent focused on stopping this administration. You've spoken about your relationship with him in the past. Do you still think you can work with him when he says things like that?

The President. Look, he said that in our last administration with Barackâhe was going to stop everythingâand I was able to get a lot done with him.

Againâlook, everything I'm proposing that be done to generate economic growth, employment, and put us in a position where we can outcompete any other country in the world with research and development and moving ahead, I pay for. We talk about, "I'd love"âwe talk about how, "This is going to cost so much money; I'm not paying for it."

The bottom line is this: My Republican friends had no problem voting to pass a tax proposal that expires in 2025, that cost $2 trillionânone of it paid forâincreased the deficit by $2 trillion; gave the overwhelming percentage of those tax breaks to people who didn't need it: the top one- tenth of 1 percent. They didn't need it.

And it was argued that what it would do is generate this great economic surge and growth. It would increase productivity. It would pay for itself. It would generate a sense of growth in America we hadn't seen ever before. Well, everyone from the Heritage Foundation on has pointed out it hasn't done thatâhasn't done that.

Now, I come along and the proposals that I'm suggesting are tried-and-true things, like when you rebuild bridges, things get better; when you rebuild highways when you don't have toâyou know, youâairports, portsâit all matters. It increases productivity.

And the programs that relate to people are programs that are the things that also generate economic growth. And I view them as, for example, tax cuts for middle classâupper-middle class, middle classâand working class people. And so you eliminate a few of theâjust have the super wealthy begin to pay their fair share. For example, you haveâyou know, you haveâI think it's 35 or 30 corporations didn't pay a single, solitary penny last year, and they're Fortune 500 companies. They made $400 billion. They paid no taxes.

How can that make any sense? Especially since these corporationsâand I come from the corporate capital of the world; more corporations are incorporated in my State than all the rest of the country combined. If you notice, corporations aren't investing any money in research and development. Somewhereâwhat's most of it going to? Buying back their own stock; stock dividends, which makes senseâleaving, by some studies, less than 10 percent for research, development, pay raises, et cetera.

Used to be that, not too long agoâfor example, during the Bush administration, the tax rate for the very wealthyâmaking well over millions of dollarsâwas 39.6 percent. It's now 37 percent. Just raise it back to what it was before.

It raises enough money from that savings to put every single person in community college who wants to go. Now, what's going to grow America more? What's going to help you and your security more: the superwealthy having to pay 3-pointâalmost, yes, 3.9-percent less tax or have an entire generation of Americans having associate degrees? That's why all the economists, even on Wall Street, are pointing it out. Guess what? It grows the economy. Benefits everybody. Hurts nobody.

But now, it'sâtalk to theâthe Wall Street Journalâ[*inaudible*]âtalk about it: a welfare program. It's about growth. And so, you know, the idea thatâit's just amazing. I mean, corporate taxes, they were 36 percent. Our administrationâthe last administration said, "We should lower it." We suggested it to be lowered to 28 percent. Well, it's got lowered to 20 percent or 21 percent.

Show me something that's benefited. What's happened? Show me where the growth is.

What's it being invested in?

Yes.

Corporate Tax Rates/Education and Family Assistance Legislation/Tax Code Reform

Q. Mr. President, on the corporate tax rate, have you talked to CEOs about that? I'mâand have youââ

The President. Yes.

Q. ââhave youâare you open to, say, 25 percent?

The President. I'm open to compromising, yes. It doesn't have to be exactly what I say, but to suggest that, which some of the folks are suggestingâand I'm going to meet with Republicans next week when they come back and seriously meet with them. I'm willing to compromise. But I'm not willing to not pay for what we're talking about. I'm not willing to deficit spend. They already have us $2 trillion in the hole.

Soâand by the way, you sawâyou know, the last five leaders of the Fed coming out and sayingâwhat'd they say? They said, "Biden's plan is going to grow the economy." You have Moody's talking about increasing it up toâI don't know what the most recent one isâ16 million new jobs. It's about growth, not stunting growth.

I think I said, not too long agoâI guess it was back in the 2000 range, there aboutâdon't hold me to the exact year; I'll getâI'll have my staff come back with the exact dateâthe average CEO of the Fortune 500 companies makes like 36 times what the average employee of that corporation made. It's over 450 times as much now.

And, as my mother would say, "Who died and left them boss?" No, seriously. What rationale? Tell me what benefit flows from that. We're not going to deprive any of these executives theirâthat second or third home; travel privately by jet. It's not going to affect their standard of living at all, not a little tiny bit.

But I can affect the standard of living of the people I grew up withâif they have a job, I can expect to makeâ[*inaudible*]âstandard of living of people I grew up withâif they have childcare and can afford it so 20 million women can be back in the workforce. This is just notâ makes no sense to me.

But it's going toâI'm going to have to be able to explain this, and I'm going to keep banging at it. I thinkâI'm not being solicitous and I'm not trying to ruin your reputation. I think most of you understand what I'm sayingâwhether you agree with me or not, I think you understand what I'm saying. It's fair to say this is about making the average multimillionaire pay just a fair share. It's not going to affect their standard of living a little bit.

Thank you all very much.

Q. Sir, you said the interest ratesâ

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:40 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Rogelio Garcia, partner and lead butcher, Les Gemelas restaurant in Washington, DC; former President Barack Obama; and former Federal Reserve chairs Janet L. Yellen, Ben S. Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan. A reporter referred to Rep. Elizabeth L. Cheney, in her capacity as chair of the House Republican Conference.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 implementation; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters :: White House.

Locations: Washington, DC.

Names: Bernanke, Ben S.; Bush, George W.; Garcia, Rogelio; Greenspan, Alan; Guzman, Isabella C.; Obama, Barack; Yellen, Janet L.

Subjects: Budget, Federal : Deficit and national debt; Business and industry : Small businesses, promotion efforts; Civil rights : Women's rights and gender equality; Congress : Bipartisanship; Diseases : Coronavirus, domestic prevention efforts; Economy, national : Household income and wages; Economy, national : Improvement; Economy, national : Income inequality; Economy, national : Strengthening efforts; Education : Postsecondary education :: Community colleges; Education : Schools, efforts to reopen; Employment and unemployment : Job creation and growth; Employment and unemployment : Job losses; Housing : Eviction and foreclosure, protection efforts; Infrastructure, national improvement efforts; Science and technology : Research and development; Small Business Administration; Taxation : Corporate tax rates; Taxation : Tax Code, reform; Taxation : Tax relief; World Trade Organization.

DCPD Number: DCPD202100372.