The U.S. government is positioned to spend $5 trillion by the time this coronavirus crisis is over in five ‘rescue’ bills. They’re rushing them through before the coronavirus disappears.
There is a bipartisan consensus to help laid-off or furloughed workers and struggling hospitals and local governments. However, the additional debt is getting dangerous.
With three “phases” of the coronavirus response already passed, the U.S. government has so far committed roughly $2.4 trillion to relief efforts. But two more pieces of legislation are being discussed that could roughly double that, if the most expensive proposals are, in fact, signed into law.
This would be more than the annual federal budget.
The $5 trillion number, adjusted for inflation, would also be more than five times the amount spent on the entire New Deal in the 1930s and just under three times the total cost of the Temporary Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) combined — the two pieces of legislation enacted by the Bush and Obama administrations to pull the U.S. out of the 2008 Great Recession.
The fact that both parties support these bills doesn’t make them appropriate. They are all pork-laden.
Josh Hawley Wants to Pay Everyone’s Wages to 80%
Sen. Josh Hawley said the federal government should prepare to cover 80% of U.S. workers’ wages up to the national median during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Because the government has taken the step of closing the economy to protect public health, Congress should, in turn, protect every single job in this country for the duration of this crisis. And Congress should help our businesses rehire every worker who has already lost a job because of the coronavirus,” the Missouri Republican wrote Wednesday in a column for the Washington Post. “Beginning immediately, the federal government should cover 80 percent of wages for workers at any U.S. business, up to the national median wage, until this emergency is over.”
“Further, it should offer businesses a bonus for rehiring workers laid off over the past month. The goal must be to get unemployment down — now — to secure American workers and their families, and to help businesses get ready to restart as soon as possible,” the senator added.
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The median salary the average U.S. worker received at the end of 2019 was $48,672, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This is nuts.
Anyone Sane Left in Congress?
Some Republicans, like Senator Cruz, are starting to sound the alarm.
“We need to see what happens in terms of fighting the coronavirus in the next several weeks,” Cruz said on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” late last month. “We need to allow the month of April to play out, and in this month of April, we need to be focusing our resources and energy on defeating the virus.”
Here comes the next big spending bill. Again, Pelosi wants to try and keep Congress at home and pass it in an empty chamber with no record. If a majority of Congress can’t or won’t come to DC, we should temporarily allow remote recorded votes. Taxpayers need transparency! pic.twitter.com/LgC90FdnfL
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 8, 2020
$500 Billion This Week
It’s all being done very quickly without enough thought and too little in the way of direct payments. Americans have no say in it.
Democrats under Pelosi are demanding a $500 billion plan with all kinds of socialist pork to their favorite groups.
The Trump administration has said it wants to quickly move $250 billion in aid to small businesses, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Wednesday that they also want to see $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for state and local governments. Democrats are also calling for a 15% increase in nutrition programs for the needy.
The next stimulus package “must provide transformational relief as the American people weather this assault on their lives and livelihoods,” the Democratic leaders said. “The American people need to know that their government is there for them in their time of great need.”
Democrats want the money doled out according to identity politics.
It would be better to open the government!
One idea Josh Hawley has should be considered: pay companies to leave China:
USA should do the same #AllinonAmerica https://t.co/s9z88MBh5H
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 9, 2020
CHECK THIS OUT
As an aside, look at the first headline and the time. Then look at the second picture and second headline and the time. They changed it to meet the Democrat narrative.
wpDiscuz
