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Economists critical of the plan tend to focus on the size of the legislation and the potential benefits of a bill better tailored to meet the needs of businesses and workers in industries that continue to suffer the most due to Covid-19, like airlines, food service and hospitality.

The most head-turning critique came from Biden’s fellow Democrat and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who in a Feb. 4 op-ed warned that the bill could spark a rebound in inflation after a decade of mostly stagnant prices.

“Given the commitments the Fed has made, administration officials’ dismissal of even the possibility of inflation, and the difficulties in mobilizing congressional support for tax increases or spending cuts, there is the risk of inflation expectations rising sharply,” he wrote in The Washington Post.

Though economywide inflation has missed the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for the vast majority of the last decade, investors are starting to grow uneasy about the potential for a jump in prices.

Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income, said that while he appreciates those worries, he is not all too concerned.

“While I see a real risk of rising inflation through the summer and fall as surging demand outstrips the recovery in supply, I’d expect that this rise will be transitory,” he wrote in an email Wednesday. 

Sheets, who also served as undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs under former President Barack Obama, added that the potential economic pros of more stimulus seem to outweigh the potential risks.

“The labor market remains mired in a deep hole,” he wrote. “Getting those 10 million jobs back will require sustained economic growth, especially given that roughly half of the job loss corresponds to folks who have left the labor force.”

Many Republicans have questioned the need to send more help beyond the money needed to speed up the Covid-19 vaccination effort and bolster the health-care system. 

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., characterized much of the spending as “waste or a wish list from progressives.” 

A group of the most centrist Senate Republicans previously offered Biden a $600 billion plan that included vaccine distribution funds, smaller direct payments to fewer people than Democrats sought and an unemployment supplement that expired sooner than their counterparts wanted. The president said he would rather pass the sprawling package with only Democratic votes than spend weeks negotiating a smaller bill with the GOP.