Good moooooooorning!!! Yeah, we’re amped up, so what? What of it? It’s Wednesday! We’ve got some news—only two stories today though because they’re pretty dense and involve an institution we all know and love: Congress. Yay! Congress!
The House Democrats have unveiled a new stimulus bill: with a whopping $3 trillion price tag. What’s in it? Is it any good? Does it have a chance in hell at getting passed? We’ll give you the rundown.
The Senate held a coronavirus hearing: and it involved a lot of goofy teleconferencing mistakes.
On second thought: boo, Congress! They suck big ass! Anyway, enough
CONGRESS
House Democrats Work on New “HEROES” Stimulus Act
House Democrats have unveiled their new stimulus act which they’re calling the “HEROES” act. The bill would be the largest relief package in history, costing over $3 trillion, and would be aimed at easing up the economy in the wake of coronavirus.
The Package
The bill would include $1 trillion in state and local aid, a response to various governors saying that more aid is needed at the local level.
It would also shore up hazard pay by adding $200 billion to a hazard pay fund. That would help essential workers according to the summary in the bill, though it doesn’t specify which workers would qualify.
Remember the $1,2000 direct cash payments we all (well, hopefully) got? It’d include another round of that but increase the household payments of up to $6,000, which could be a big help to low-income families.
It’d put $75 billion towards COVID-19 testing to help ensure that whenever we do reopen, there is adequate testing to help trace and track the virus and keep folks healthy.
Don’t think they forgot about everyone struggling to pay their rent or mortgage though: it’d launch a $175 billion housing assistance fund to help people out with that.
The $600-per-week boost to unemployment benefits that was passed with the CARES Act would be continued through January.
Last little details: a 15% increase in SNAP funding, an employee retention tax credit to keep people on payrolls, and aid for employer-backed health coverage.
The Problems
Lindsey Graham has already said the bill is “dead on arrival,” while John Barrasso described it as a “payoff” to Pelosi’s constituents. John Thune didn’t believe the bill was designed to pass in the first place. Lastly, Mitch McConnell described the bill as “not something designed to deal with reality.” Ouch.
So if the bill wasn’t going to pass in the first place, you’d imagine it was pretty ambitious and called for all the possible bells and whistles, to at least let Dem voters know that the party is doing whatever they can and Republicans are obstructing that...right?
What’s up with the lack of recurring payments? People like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and even more centrist politicians like Kamala Harris wanted $2,000 monthly payments.
Pramila Jayapal also took issue: she wanted to see the inclusion of the Paycheck Guarantee Act, which would cover 100% of worker wages up to $90,000 a year. Jayapal purportedly confronted Pelosi to no avail, but Jayapal and the co-leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Mark Pocan, also calling for the vote to be pushed back by a week to allow progressives time to respond. Pelosi wants to vote this Friday, progressive leaders want to wait until next week.
Climate action groups also took issue with the bill for failing to close loopholes that allow fossil fuel corporations to lobby for federal bailouts during the pandemic.
Some are also worried about those “protections for employer-sponsored insurance plans.” That amounts to subsidies for COBRA which is, to put it nicely, a garbage system. Some attempt at getting people on Medicare, at least those who need the help, would be a welcome change. Many are actually going to be better off on Medicaid than COBRA. Bernie Sanders says that subsidizing COBRA “would be both expensive and ineffective.”
Bottom line: these letdowns may best be summed up by Jordan Uhl, who tweeted: “80,000 people are dead. If there's ever been a time where it's on people to demand more from their elected officials—especially leaders of their own party—you'd be hard-pressed to think of a time more fitting than now.” We agree.
CORONAVIRUS
The Senate Held a Coronavirus Hearing
Attendees including Dr. Anthony Fauci who is part of the coronavirus task force, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Stephen Hahn, the head of the CDC Dr. Robert Redfield, the assistant health secretary who is overseeing the federal government’s testing efforts Brett Giroir, and a buncha old Senators. The hearing was kinda weird, actually!
What Went Down
Here are some key takeaways.
While there are declines in infections in some areas, Fauci warned about being overly optimistic, saying that “we don’t have it completely under control.” He also advised that reopening states without the proper precautions create a “real risk that you will trigger an outbreak.”
Dr. Fauci also said that the current death toll of 80,000 is likely wrong, but not because it’s overinflated: instead, he says “most of us feel that the number of deaths are likely higher than that number.”
On vaccines: Fauci says that it’s not a long shot. In fact, he says it’s “much more likely than not that we will get a vaccine.” That comes with some caveats though: he’s not optimistic about vaccines or treatments being ready by August, which may influence whether some schools end up having physical classes.
Mitt Romney slammed the notion that we should be celebrating how much testing we’ve done, as he believes the country simply “treaded water” while other countries, such as South Korea, were much more aggressive in early testing.
The chairman of the meeting, Lamar Alexandar, said this won’t be the last coronavirus hearing and that they ought to happen more regularly.
The Biggest Goofs and Gags
This isn’t really important, but we’d like to harp on some of the funnier aspects of this hearing, which marked the first time the Senate has done something like this via conference call.
Bernie Sanders opened the call with some mumbling, having not realized that he didn’t mute himself. He also sat in a room that sported some interesting art, including a Red Hot Chili Peppers poster and something related to Prince’s New Generation Power. Seriously.
Mitt Romney sat in front of dozens of posters of family members, which is a very Mormon power move. He also set himself apart by naming himself simply: “mitt.” Lowercase M and all.
Many Senators who attended in person didn’t wear masks at all. Tim Kaine wore a weird bandana that made him look like an outlaw and Susan Collins wore a mask that she kept fiddling with, rendering it ineffective, though.
At points, barking dogs in the background caused some confusion. Some suspect it was chairman Lamar Alexander’s dog, Rufus, who could be seen laying down behind him.
Bottom line: it’s kinda worrisome that people who can’t figure out a Zoom call or refuse to wear masks even though they definitely should be are in charge of all of this.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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