Dems Have A Plan-- Republicans Refuse To Read It And Reject It Out Of Hand

L.A. County announced that stay at home orders would remain in place 'til at least August 1. I don't see much enforcement in L.A. and everything I read indicates that outside the Bay Area there's no real enforcement anywhere. For example, Elon Musk, the selfish white South African billionaire-- and asshole-- still hasn't been arrested for reopening his factory. And California wonders why the numbers just keep climbing and climbing. A few weeks ago, California only had 880 or so cases per million. Those days are gone. With 72,905 confirmed cases (including 1,967 new ones today) California's caseload per million is now 1,845-- worse than Russia and Turkey, two countries with very serious spiking. and worse than several states headed for a grim Wave II, like South Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, Arizona, and Texas.

But not as bad as Florida, which now has 1,974 confirmed cases per million, over 2,500 new cases since reopening on Monday. ABC News reported that. The whole state, minus Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, is now open. (Yesterday Lee, Jackson, Collier and the whole Orlando area were all spiking.)

Yesterday Dr. Fauci testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sparking a fight between crackpot Republicans and borderline normal Republicans. Fauci warned them that reopen the US economy too fast-- which is what Trump is demanding-- is very dangerous and could "trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control." Nuts like Rand Paul say Fauci is an alarmist and just one voice of many.

Meanwhile, as Republicans stew over that controversy, they started another one by rejecting the House Democrats' rescue bill without even reading it! Pelosi and her team "unveiled a sprawling coronavirus rescue bill Tuesday that would direct more than $3 trillion to state and local governments, health systems, and a range of other initiatives, setting up a huge clash with Senate Republicans and the White House over how to deal with the sputtering economy. The bill would also send a second round of stimulus checks to millions of Americans and include more funding for the Postal Service. Not every component of the bill would include more government spending. Some parts would aim to address the coronavirus pandemic in other ways, such as by requiring passengers to wear masks on airplanes and public transit."

Republicans rejected the legislation even before they saw it, describing it as a liberal wish list that would go nowhere in the Republican-led Senate. For example, the bill would suspend a tax provision for two years that limits tax breaks for upper-income households in high-tax states, something Democrats have tried to change for several years. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was at work on crafting liability protections for businesses instead. “This is not a time for aspirational legislation,” McConnell said.

The massive new Democratic bill was assembled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her top lieutenants without input from Republicans or the Trump administration. It’s less an opening bid in a bipartisan negotiation than an expression of House Democrats’ priorities that they hope will resonate with the public as the nation suffers through the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression.

As health officials and economic advisers warn that the pandemic and economic fallout will likely drag through the summer and at least into the fall, lawmakers from both parties are eyeing how the government’s response to the virus could impact the November elections.

...“We must think big for the people now, because if we don’t it will cost more in lives and livelihood later,” Pelosi said at a press conference. “Not acting is the most expensive course.”

The 1,800-page legislation, which the House is expected to vote on Friday, would devote nearly $1 trillion to state, local, territorial and tribal governments and establish a $200 billion “Heroes Fund” to extend hazard pay to essential workers. It would also send a second-- and larger-- round of direct payments to individual Americans, up to $6,000 per household.

Other parts of the bill would increase nutrition assistance benefits by 15 percent and provide $175 billion in housing assistance, among other things. A $600 weekly increase in unemployment insurance would be extended through January, and the bill directs another $75 billion for coronavirus testing and contact tracing.

Other provisions include $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service-- a frequent target of attacks from President Trump-- and a new requirement for passengers and employees on airlines, public transit systems and Amtrak trains to wear masks. Protections are included for legitimate cannabis-related businesses, and there is $3 billion to increase mental health support, and $400 million to help the Census Bureau deal with coronavirus-related delays in the 2020 census.

The Democrats’ legislation also includes provisions to ensure that all voters can vote by mail in the November election and all subsequent federal elections, an idea that Trump and many Republicans have rejected because they say it invites fraud.

It would be Congress’ fifth coronavirus relief bill, building on the $2 trillion Cares Act passed in late March. But while the first four bills were the result of urgent bipartisan compromise in the early days of the pandemic, now the two sides aren’t even talking and are moving in radically different directions. It’s unclear when they will come together to produce another bipartisan response, but some Republicans suggested it might not be anytime soon.

Asked Tuesday if the Senate needs to pass a bill before Memorial Day, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, “Oh God no.” Many Republicans argue that having spent around $3 trillion already in the laws passed thus far, they need to pause and see how those programs are working before doing anything further.

...Trump himself has sounded more open to additional legislation. Asked on Monday about a second round of direct payments to individuals that’s part of the House Democrats’ bill, Trump said, "Well, we’re talking about that with a lot of different people. I want to see a payroll tax cut. I want to see various things that we want. I want the workers to be taken care of. But we are talking about that. We’re negotiating with the Democrats. We’ll see what happens."

Democrats say that the White House is not, in fact, negotiating with them. And the payroll tax cut that Trump has repeatedly talked about is probably a non-starter on Capitol Hill, with even Senate Republicans rejecting it.

However, there are some programs now in effect that Republicans are eyeing changes to, which could help force congressional action in June if not before. Two-month loans issued under the small business Paycheck Protection Program, created as part of the Cares Act in late March, will begin to expire, and some Republicans would like to see their time period extended. The $600 billion program itself, which already ran out of money once, forcing Congress to step in and add more in its most recent coronavirus bill last month, could also run short of funding again.

Cathy Kunkel is the Blue America-endorsed congressional candidate in central West Virginia. "Relief for state and local governments is critical," she noted. "Here in West Virginia we are facing a state budget shortfall of $500 million by the end of June. Without federal relief, we will be looking at another attempt by our state legislature to cut funding for public education and public employee health insurance-- services already so poorly funded that they inspired West Virginia's historic school employee strike in 2018. And we are not the only state where public services have already been cut to the bone."

Lisa Ring has also been endorsed by Blue America. She's running for Congress in Georgia's coastal district, currently occupied by Trumpist tool Buddy Carter. This morning she told us that "As we face yet another attempt to promote the well-being of all our nation's citizens thwarted by GOP ignorance and greed, let us commit to replacing every legislator responsible for promoting an agenda of self interest over providing leadership and assistance to the people they were elected to represent."

Jon Hoadley is a progressive state Rep in Kalamazoo and he's taking on Trumpist pawn Fred Upton for the southwest Michigan congressional seat. Today he released a statement that said, in part, "We need funding for our state and local units of government. The fact that Sen. Mitch McConnell would let states go bankrupt rather than make sure we have appropriate funding for our students and teachers, make college attainable when so many people need to re-skill, or ensure firefighters and first responders aren't laid off right when we need them to keep us safe tells you everything about the state of disfunction in DC right now. As a current State Representative, I see how Republican inaction on this funding will cost lives."

Jayapal & Pocan asked Pelosi to postpone the vote for a week

One senior progressive, who would rather remain anonymous, told me this afternoon that the package is "an embarrassment. This is beyond feckless. At this point it's minus-feck. Classic Richie Neal-- short-order cook for K Street." Some of the Blue America-endorsed candidates agree with him-- and not anonymously.

Robin Wilt, for example, is in a primary battle against a do-nothing New Dem whose sympathies lie with corporations and CEOs more than with his own Monroe County constituents. "In a letter dated March 23, 2020, the Congressional Progressive Caucus outlined more than 40 priorities in 12 issues areas to give families and workers the financial resources to stay healthy and ensure that our health system is equipped to provide life-saving, universal care to everyone in our country during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. While it’s not known how many of those priorities are specifically addressed in the most recently proposed 1,800 page omnibus relief package put forth by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, one thing that we can be sure of is that the entirety of the conversation about how to help everyday Americans in light of the gravity of this moment, and provide economic security and peace of mind to families at this critical time, is occurring on the left side of the aisle. Meanwhile, the GOP stubbornly rejects science and risks millions more deaths by flouting the social distancing restrictions called for by the medical community on the front lines.

"Concerns about the legislation being drafted without direct input from the rank and file aside, Pelosi and Hoyer are correct that this is the time to think big, and re-envision the areas of our economic and social policies that have left so many behind during this healthcare crisis; but Jayapal and Pocan also are correct to examine the bill to ensure that it focuses on the three arenas in which people are struggling amid the crisis: help for the unemployed to safely get them back to work; access to healthcare; and support for small business.

"As we move forward, we must be wary of reassurances from the establishment that a safe, equitable economic recovery is achievable without prioritizing the immediate needs of those most impacted by the crisis."

Not all Democratic allied groups are happy about the proposal but in response this supportive statement was issued by American Federation of Teachers, Demos, Greenpeace, Indivisible, MoveOn, SEIU, United We Dream Action, the Working Families Party and several other organizations:


“This is a historic, once-in-a-generation crisis. It requires a historic response. This proposal is an important step.

“We urgently need the relief measures that Speaker Pelosi introduced today. More than 80,000 people have died, more than 1.3 million have been infected, more than 33 million have filed for unemployment, and millions more are struggling to pay bills, hold on to housing and put food on the table. And predictably, generations of racist, anti-immigrant and anti-worker policies that created inequality in work, health, wealth and education are now allowing the coronavirus to attack Black, Latinx, AAPI, undocumented and Native American people at far greater rates, and are deeply disrupting life for communities of color.

Suicide is Painless

“We have suffered for months as President Trump has downplayed the coronavirus threat, pointed fingers, shirked responsibility and made reckless decisions intended to improve his reelection chances. Republicans have done nothing but push ‘relief’ that bails out corporations but gives too little, too late to essential workers, small businesses and everyday people.

 “In the face of this vacuum of leadership and complete failure to govern, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have proposed legislation that is responsive to the needs of the people, regardless of immigration status. No matter their party affiliation, people support responses to the pandemic that put people first and actually meet the scale of the crisis and protect workers, families and the economy.

“Our millions of members know we cannot safely roll back distancing measures without protecting people first, and that premature rollbacks will cause chaos and fear that harm the economy. Measures like those in this legislation are vital to getting through this pandemic because they ensure working people have the support they need to feed their families while following public health guidelines. We are ready to mobilize to make sure that Republicans in both houses of Congress, especially the Senate, know their constituents expect them to stop playing politics and act now. We expect them to pass Speaker Pelosi’s proposal, which includes provisions critical to provide real relief and avoid further economic catastrophe.”

Eva Putzova, the progressive candidate in for AZ-01 saw it differently. "This bill," she said, "has no chance of passing Congress, but it exists as a values statement by the Democratic leadership. It reminds us that corporations, special interests, and wealthy donors are still their number one priority, not working people. It reminds us that they are not only willing, but are comfortable with offering crumbs to families that are deeply suffering. And it reminds us just how out of touch they truly are with regular people in this country. In a bill that won't see the light of day, they still chose to center the wants of the wealthy few over the needs of the many. That’s telling.

Oklahoma City progressive Tom Guild is on a similar page: "Cares 1 was a windfall and giveaway to big corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy. I heard Nancy Pelosi use the phrase trickle down as she was explaining the Cares 1 legislation during a recent TV interview. Now three emergency pandemic bills later, we keep waiting for real people to take top priority in the proposed new and improved fifth bill put forth by Pelosi (who lobbied her members hard to vote for the first Cares Act) herself. Will the fifth proposed coronavirus fixit Pelosi bill be the charm? Still no hint that systemic change is in the air that would permanently benefit working people and those who are economically disadvantaged. Corporate mergers will remain unrestrained. Corporate lobbyists will redecorate with new cash on hand while feathering their nests. Dark money groups will benefit. The very groups that are running hundreds of dark money ads for my DCCC created and supported primary opponent will be living high on the blind hog. Even more tax cuts for the wealthy, benefitting primarily corporate Democratic campaigns, will exacerbate and grow the giant chasm between the .1% and the other 99.9%. Wealth and income inequality will segue into a veritable grand canyon between us (the great unwashed) and them. Instead of reforming health care by moving toward a universal single payer system, the Pelosi bill will throw more money at COBRA and make health insurers even richer. The rest of us in the famous and dramatic words of Marie Antoinette will just have to eat cake, if no bread is available. It makes me want to say in Alta voce Off With Her Head! Wait the French already took care of that for us. It is worth noting that some in the Democratic congressional ranks can do some good things occasionally for those of us who constitute the great unwashed. Why the hell do they more than take it back by pursuing a corporatist agenda and ultimately doing more harm than good? Neil Young summarized the dilemma for those of us who have not been invited to join the permanent ruling class at the local country club. The Needle and the Damage Done. Sing it Neil. Louder my friend. ENCORE! If you need a good book (it is short) to read while you are stewing over the new reality-- that seems a lot like the old reality-- let me recommend The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffrey Reiman. Give Reiman his props. He has this charade pretty much figured out.

Liam O'Mara, having handily won his primary, is the progressive Democrat taking on egregiously corrupt Trump enabler Ken Calvert in California's Riverside County. "It's hard to know where to start on the GOP response to this legislation," Liam told me this evening. "While Congressmember Calvert described it as a 'radically left agenda,' the bill is actually more conservative in its aims than policies already taken by right-wing governments across Europe. That should tell you rather a lot about the Orwellian approach Republicans take to voter outreach-- nothing but lies, doublespeak, and the grade-school game of opposite-day.

"We did not need to have unemployment reaching levels not seen since the 1930s. We have that because Republicans don't care about workers or economics, only protecting their owners. Instead of wage-subsidies to keep people working, they let millions lose their jobs, and now balk at providing the financial support that would keep people from losing their homes as well.

"It seems there's never a national crisis that Republicans can't make worse through a combination of sheer incompetence and deliberate malice. We should go much farther than this initial House bill, and instead it seems they want to stick us with much less. The losers in all of it will be the American people, as the economy shrinks and more of the middle class disappears.

"The GOP, of course, will still blame Democrats, and respond with more of the same authoritarian nonsense they have been after all along. If the lies keep working, we'll be lucky not to end up looking like a tin-pot dictatorship."