Biden’s economic team set to prepare ambitious recovery plan, challenging Republicans’ renewed debt worries

Era of low interest rates prompts rethinking of debt and deficit policies

December 2, 2020 at 11:01 a.m. EST

President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced his economic team on Dec. 1, vowing to make economic recovery from the coronavirus accessible for everyone. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of economic advisers highlights a commitment to spend whatever is needed to restore a full-employment economy, setting up a clash with Senate Republicans who are sounding alarms over a national debt they helped President Trump increase by nearly $7 trillion.

As the economic recovery shows signs of faltering amid rising coronavirus caseloads, even members of Biden’s economic team who have called rising government debt a problem support a generous new rescue package. Former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, a deficit hawk Biden picked for treasury secretary, said earlier this year that the United States could afford new borrowing to help a wounded economy and would save money in the long run by preventing lasting damage to the labor market.