Culture Of Corruption-- Mitch McConnell's Pandemic Relief Bill... And Plenty Of The Worst Dems In Congress Love The Worst Parts Of It

UnAmerican by Chip Proser

House Democrats passed a $3 trillion dollar recovery and stimulus package in May. The Republicans' bill, finally revealed last night, was about a third of that-- and McConnell said, arbitrarily, that it will likely represent lawmakers’ last major legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic. What an asshat! That's up to the pandemic not some closet case from Kentucky to determine. Besides, if he doesn't die sooner, he'll likely be out of power in a few months anyway. Washington Post reporters Jeff Stein, Laura Meckler and Tony Romm wrote that the two bills are so dissimilar that "the path toward a final compromise [is] unclear on many key questions."

The GOP legislation left out some White House priorities, such as the president’s demand for a payroll tax cut, but includes more than $100 billion for America’s schools; a liability shield to protect businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits; another round of direct stimulus payments; a new round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as more money for emergency business loans; and a reduced extension of emergency federal unemployment benefits, among other measures.

The legislation is also notable for what it leaves out, as the GOP opted against including new funding for state and local governments, and hazard pay for essential front-line workers, among other policies pushed by congressional Democrats.

So... let's compare. Over 20 million people are collecting enhanced unemployment benefits-- or were; it runs out this week. It was $600/week. McConnell's bill lowers that to $200. Pelosi's bill extends the $600 benefit. And even in the Deep Red South, voters want more pandemic relief, not less:

In McConnell's bill, the one-time government stimulus check is for another $1,200 for the same people who got it last time. Pelosi's would make the benefit bigger by providing families with an additional $1,200 for reach child for up to three children, whereas the initial bill approved in March gave families only $500 per child.

And then comes the GOP "liability shield," which prevents businesses and other institutions from being sued for 5 years even if they're found guilty of negligence in the deaths of employees and customers. McConnell has basically said that without this, there will be no package whatsoever. Democratic leaders oppose it but I suspect that the corrupt New Dems and Blue Dogs like it as much as Republicans and will force Pelosi and Hoyer to give in eventually. Just watch.

McConnell isn't interested in aiding local governments, which is a key Democratic demand-- a trillion dollars worth. Presumably the Democrats will get part of their wish on this one in return for McConnell's liability shield.

Stein, Meckler and Romm wrote that "The GOP bill includes $105 billion for education, with $70 billion targeted to K-12 schools. Of that, two-thirds of the funding reserved to help schools to reopen for in-person instruction. To get the funding schools would have to meet certain 'minimum opening requirements' established by their states. Trump has demanded that schools open fully for the fall term, even as covid-19 cases rise. He’s threatened to pull federal funding from those who don’t. He doesn’t have the power to do that, but he has insisted that new funding be tied to schools reopening... Senate Democrats are demanding more total money for schools, although House Democrats’ package has slightly less. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate Education Committee, proposed $175 billion for K-12 schools and $132 billion for higher education plus a $33 billion flexible Governor’s Fund."

As for the troubled and corrupted Paycheck Protection Program, McConnell wants to throw about $190 billion in to support second loans for PPP recipients and another $100 billion for long-term loans to seasonal businesses and businesses in poor neighborhoods. Democrats will likely be fine with this.

McConnell is proposing $16 billion in funding for testing; $16 billion for the National Institutes of Health; and $3 billion for the Centers for Disease Control in their efforts to contain the virus, also likely to be fine with Senate Democrats.

As we mentioned earlier, the GOP wants to make business meals 100% deductible (instead of 50% as they are now). This has been a Trump priority forever.

Other nonsense proposals having nothing to do with the pandemic include $686 million for new #F35 fighter jets-- because, of course, fighter jets are well known for their pandemic fighting abilities.

And that ain't all. Trump forced McConnell to include nearly $2 billion in the relief bill "for the design and construction of a Washington, D.C. headquarters facility for the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Why? CNN reported Señor T personally demanded this. Why? Simple: "Plans to relocate the FBI from the aging Hoover building, which had been in the works since at least 2012, could have resulted in the construction of a hotel to compete with Trump's hotel a block away... In late 2018, senior House Democrats said they had reviewed documents indicating that Trump was 'directly involved with the decision to abandon the long-term relocation plan and instead move ahead with the more expensive proposal to construct a new building on the same site, and thereby prevent Trump Hotel competitors from acquiring the land.'" Always a scumbag.

And speaking of scumbags... anything co-sponsored by a Republican, in this case, Mitt Romney, with the four biggest conservative suck-ups in the Senate, Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV), Doug Jones (AL) and Mark Warner (VA) can only be scumbaggery. In this case, the inclusion of their so-called Trust Act into the bill. It's a toxic brew from right-wing advocacy groups, including the Koch-funded organization Americans for Prosperity, that will allow the Senate to try again to dismantle Social Security. Because, you know how much that belongs in a pandemic rescue package. Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare: "This would allow benefit cuts to be fast-tracked through Congress. Seniors and people with disabilities need their benefits boosted, not slashed. Like payroll tax cuts, the TRUST Act is bad medicine for everyday Americans struggling to stay financially afloat, especially during the Covid crisis."

Alex Lawson and Nancy Altman, respectively, executive director and president of Social Security Works: "Trump and his stooges in the Senate can't stop trying to rob us of our Social Security. They will use every opportunity and every crisis-- including the mass death and economic carnage from Covid-- as cover for their sick desire to destroy our Social Security system." And Altman warned the TRUST ACT is "a way to undermine the economic security of Americans without political accountability. Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and all congressional Republicans have made their priorities clear. In the midst of a catastrophic pandemic, they should be focused on protecting seniors, essential workers, and the unemployed. Instead, they are plotting to use the cover of the pandemic to slash Social Security. Democrats must stand united and unequivocally reject any package that includes the TRUST Act."

There are also 30 House Democrats eager to destroy Social Security-- the worst of the worst garbage among House Dems. Here's a letter they signed to Pelosi advocating for Romney's Trust Act:

• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)
• Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI)
• Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)
• Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
• Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)... Rebecca Parson is priamrying him next week
• Jimmy Panetta (New Dem-CA)
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)
• Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)... Eva Putzova is primarying him next week
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)... Keeda Haynes is primarying him next week
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)
• Dan Lipinksi (Blue Dog-IL)... defeated by Marie Newman in a primary
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
• Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)
• Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH)
• Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)
• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)
• Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)

That's basically a list of the 30 Democrats in the House who should be defeated in November if they survive primary season, as most of them have. When someone mentions the "Republican wing of the Democratic Party"... that's the House contingent. One more thing about the McConnell bill-- David Sirota reported that "while raking in cash from health care industry donors, McConnell and his cronies copied and pasted Cuomo's incredibly corrupt corporate immunity law into their new COVID relief package... word-for-word.

Adam Christensen is the progressive candidate running in north-central Florida for the seat that Ted Yoho is abandoning. He told me today that he had recently spent the morning at Grace marketplace in Gainesville. "Grace," he said, "is an organization that works to find permanent housing for the chronically homeless. They have done an absolutely amazing job to prevent the spread of COVID-19 with those that they are working with. But they also told me that they feared they would be overrun in the next couple months. That if evictions start to happen, and people start to lose their homes that there are almost 28,000,000 people that will be at risk of being on the street. We also have reports of people walking around in poor neighborhoods offering cash to buy homes (for pennies on the dollar) taking advantage of desperate people. Before the pandemic 40% of people in the U.S. were living paycheck to paycheck and only had $400 in their accounts. That money is now gone. Unless we take bold and drastic steps now, we are going to see a level of poverty and pain that the United States has never experienced before. That is why I have backed an emergency UBI of $2,000 a month, so that people are able to get through this crisis. Because if we don’t start taking care of people instead of just donors then our problems are only going to get worse." Suggestion: give Adam a hand with his campaign here. You'll never find his name on a list of Democrats who want to dismantle Social Security.