The Bill, The Bill, The Bill... And, Don't Forget For A Moment That The Bill Will Come Due

The House passed the $2.2 trillion Wall Street bailout, filled with goodies for corporate America, by voice vote today-- but not before Trump lost his shit on Twitter this morning when someone told him Thomas Massie (R-KY) had decided to force a roll call vote. Here's a narrative version of Massie's tweet storm after being savaged by Señor Trumpanmzee (above), who is now likely to back Massie's very right-wing primary supporter, Todd McMurtry. "I swore an oath to uphold the constitution, and I take that oath seriously," he began. "In a few moments I will request a vote on the CARES Act which means members of Congress will vote on it by pushing 'yes' or 'no' or 'present.'" Actually, what it means is that every member of the House might have had to go on record as being for it or against it, something both Pelosi and McCarthy wanted to avoid-- and were able to. And it meant that enough members of Congress had to drag their asses back to DC to give leadership a quorum. It's Pelosi's own fault that she refused to pay attention to the Members who have been urging her to institute remote voting during the pandemic. Back to Massie:

The Constitution requires that a quorum of members be present to conduct business in the House. Right now, millions of essential, working-class Americans are still required to go to work during this pandemic such as manufacturing line workers, healthcare professionals, I am not delaying the bill like Nancy Pelosi did last week. The bill that was worked on in the Senate late last week was much better before Speaker Pelosi showed up to destroy it and add days and days to the process. This bill should have been voted on much sooner in both the Senate and House and it shouldn’t be stuffed full of Nancy Pelosi’s pork-- including $25 million for the Kennedy Center, grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, and millions more other measures that have no direct relation to the Coronavirus Pandemic. That $25 million, for example, should go directly to purchasing test kits. The number one priority of this bill should have been to expand testing availability and creation of tests so that every American, not just the wealthy and privileged, have access to testing. We have shut down the world’s economy without adequate data. Everyone, even those with no symptoms, needs immediate access to a test. This bill creates even more secrecy around a Federal Reserve that still refuses to be audited. It allows the Federal Reserve to make decisions about who gets what, how much money we’ll print. With no transparency. If getting us into $6 trillion more debt doesn’t matter, then why are we not getting $350 trillion more in debt so that we can give a check of $1 million to every person in the country? This stimulus should go straight to the people rather than being funneled through banks and corporations like this bill is doing. 2 trillion divided by 150 million workers is about $13,333.00 per person. That’s much more than the $1,200 per person check authorized by this bill."

Oh, look-- two mega-rich worthless Wall Street suck-ups agree with each other that Massie is a bad, bad boy:

Massie amigo and fellow Libertarian, Justin Amash, who fled the Trump version of the GOP and became the House's only Independent, defended him in a twitter battle with Trump-worshipping Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw. Amash tweeted "Crenshaw has learned a lot from Donald Trump during his time in Congress. He mischaracterizes a $500 billion corporate welfare fund that will mostly benefit a few large corporations hand-picked by government. Then, when called on it, he changes the topic and calls others liars."

The Washington Post, as always, spoke for the ruling class Establishment: Mike DeBonis with a quintessential Postism: "The scores of lawmakers who rushed back to Washington Friday to secure passage of a $2.2 trillion rescue bill expressed shock and dismay at having to defy the advice of experts and risk their health amid a global pandemic that has already killed more than 1,000 Americans. But many were not surprised at which of their colleagues forced them to do it. During his seven years in Congress, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has established a reputation as a uniquely irascible congressional gadfly-- one who is frequently at odds with his own party’s leadership, rarely votes for major bills negotiated with Democrats, and, to make an ideological point, is willing to use the House rule book to inconvenience his colleagues. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic threatening the nation, many believe Massie has gone well beyond inconvenience into threatening the health-- and potentially the lives-- of lawmakers and staff. And while Massie’s GOP colleagues have long grumbled about his tactics, he has now attracted the scorn of the most powerful Republican: President Trump. Massie opposes the rescue bill on fiscal and constitutional grounds and threatened ahead of a planned voice vote Friday to require a quorum be present-- 216 members, half the House. Trump called him a 'third-rate Grandstander' on Twitter Friday. 'He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay,' he said, calling on voters to 'throw Massie out of Republican Party!'"

Suicide Is Painless

There's disagreement on the left as well. Matt Stoller, writing for The Guardian this past Sunday, said it most clearly-- and most disturbingly: America will be unrecognizable after this pandemic if big corporations walk away with trillions of dollars and no strings attached.

Now, I’m not opposed to supporting industries. This is a crisis, and we do not want a lot of the productive capacity of the United States to fall apart because of a pandemic. But the key to supporting enterprises is to make sure that there are strict conditions, so that power doesn’t consolidate into the hands of monopolists and financiers cherry-picking distressed assets. Otherwise, America will simply be unrecognizable after this pandemic. CNBC personality Jim Cramer, for instance, is worried that after this pandemic America will have just three retailers. And he’s right to be worried about that.

Here’s how we can stop it. There are enough members of Congress to act and prevent what really looks less like a relief package and more a corporate coup. However, the problem is that this group is split into different political parties, and Congressional leadership is taking advantage of that dynamic to jam this through. US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell wants big business to rule, so he’s playing a trick. He is refusing aid to workers. Democrats are negotiating with him to try to get unemployment assistance and social welfare. McConnell knows Democrats won’t pay attention to corporate bailouts if he takes the public hostage, and Democrats know that they can hand out favors to big business if they just talk about how they got larger checks for workers.

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Pramila Jayapal, in the lead-up to the vote, said she's able to overcome her instincts about the very things Stoller is most worried about. Her own state, Washington "is reeling from the spread of COVID-19, and I have worked tirelessly to ensure the federal government steps up and responds to this crisis."

This bill is an important step forward. It significantly expands unemployment insurance benefits for laid-off and furloughed workers, puts money directly into the pockets of struggling working people and families, provides critical relief in the form of emergency grants and forgivable loans to devastated small businesses and nonprofits, infuses cash into strained local and state governments and health care systems, increases the amounts of personal protective equipment in the Strategic National Stockpile, and supports struggling industries that do right by their employees.

It is not perfect and there is far more Congress must do to do to fully meet our obligation to our constituents. We need to get more money to our health care system, states and localities, guarantee testing and treatment for everyone, expand benefits to those that have been left out and protect the health and safety of people in the criminal justice and immigration detention systems. Congress must also conduct vigorous oversight of industry assistance to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to support workers, not to further inequality.

We are already at work immediately on the next package to ensure it includes provisions we fought for but did not get this time. This is a crisis of epic proportions and we must continue to do everything we can to respond with the scale sufficient to meet the suffering of people across our country. I am proud to represent a district and a state with so much compassion and commitment, and I will continue to fight for all my constituents as we weather this together.

AOC, in the other hand, feels that the House could work a little harder before being stampeded into a bill so foul.





I don't know what to make of these three pictures from a #1 best selling book, The Eyes of Darkness written by Dean Koontz four decades ago and published in 1981. Amazing coincidence... right? CNN has already debunked it as a conspiracy theory. So has Snopes, based on the purported origin of the disease. OK.