New coronavirus relief bill, austerity politics, and right-wing populism.
woo, woo, it’s news time
Good morning, friends! It’s hard to get excited about anything these days. You probably expected a “but” tucked somewhere, but that’s all we’ve got—well, aside from some news.
The Senate passed an almost $500 billion interim coronavirus relief bill: and Mitch McConnell is already pumping the breaks on any future relief because you know, austerity and all that jazz, which neatly brings us to our next story.
Stop worrying about national debt so darn much: especially amid the need for massive coronavirus relief spending. Austerity confuses a number of things but one thing is clear; not all debt is bad. Not news but hey, it was a pretty slow news day, let us have this okay?
Trump’s on a path to suspend immigration and Tucker Carlson plays an important role: when crisis strikes, far-right populists need to find someone to blame. Blaming immigrants is pretty on-brand for these creeps, too.
This is fun, right? We’re having fun.
CORONAVIRUS
A New Coronavirus Relief Bill Was Passed. Now What?
Senate has passed an almost $500 billion coronavirus relief bill and it’s highly expected that Trump will sign it as House members are urged to return to Washington to a vote on Thursday morning. It’s easy to get swept up in the moment and see Congress acting with, uh, some expediency, but Mitch McConnell is already signaling pushback against further legislation.
The Key Details of the Bill
The interim proposal came after a standoff due to Republicans only wanting to offer an additional $250 billion in small-business relief funds since the original fund ran out of money. Democrats wanted to expand the bill to also include “underbanked businesses”, hospitals, and state governments.
Underbanked businesses: including businesses in rural or minority areas that may have difficulty accessing the loan program are going to have $60 billion in additional funding set aside.
Hospitals and coronavirus testing: $75 billion is going straight to hospitals, while $25 billion is being set aside for coronavirus testing.
State funding: didn’t happen. Pelosi and Schumer released a joint statement saying they’re “disappointed” that Trump wouldn’t agree to current state funding, though he did say he may consider it in the future.
It’s Hard to Be Positive Here
Mitch McConnell has continually twisted the arms of Schumer and Pelosi, so while it certainly feels like they used their leverage to get more through, it’s hard to say how far that leverage will get them.
Let’s be honest: this bill doesn’t go far enough. Neither did the first CARES Act. With the House under the wings of Democrats—and a Republican White House who will face blame if not enough is done—the argument could be made that Congressional Democrats don’t have strong enough leadership.
Then again, people are dying. It’s a scary time. If we can get people some, even if not enough relief, then that’s...something!
McConnell and Republicans have promised to look at certain things like additional state funding or food stamps at a later date. However, McConnell also warns against spending too much money, saying it’s “also time to begin to think about the amount of debt we’re adding to our country and the future impact of that.” What a ghoul!
Bottom line: It’s always said when tragedies like this are going down but it bears repeating: partisan politics suck. People need help and they aren’t getting it.
AUSTERITY
We’re About to See a Lot of Austerity Talk. It Sucks.
Austerity. If you don’t know, it’s essentially a variety of political/economic policies or sentiments aimed at reducing a government’s budget deficits. This can happen via spending cuts or tax increases, two things (whether they’ll actually happen or not) we’re going to hear a lot about in a post-coronavirus United States.
Now’s Not the Time, Thanks
The often-pushed austerity narrative—that all debt is bad and must eventually be repaid—isn’t just the victim of a special kind of conservative hypocrisy (the national debt has skyrocketed thanks to Trump’s tax cuts and Republicans generally oppose, at least on the books, any tax increases). It’s also just principally misguided.
Sovereign debt is not comparable to private debt. America doesn’t need to pay its debt back; it’s just rolled over indefinitely. We don’t want to dabble too much in MMT here but consider that during WW2, the U.S. debt ratio reached 119%, which is around where we seem to be headed; there was no collapse and all of that debt was rolled over.
We may be borrowing too little, not too much. The impacts of economic collapse like what we’re potentially facing are massive. Here’s a good piece on it by Ryan Cooper.
Bottom line: Republicans don’t really give a damn about how much money the government is spending. They’ll get involved in all the costly wars they can, provided it keeps them and their ilk rich and allows them to continue pushing their antiquated social beliefs.
Democrats are guilty of pushing austerity politics, too, though—so even if pushing for austerity may not seem hypocritical, it could still be misplaced. Watch what politicians do once all this coronavirus business isn’t the centerpiece of the news cycle.
TRUMPOCALYPSE
Trump Wants to Suspend Immigration While Egged On by Tucker Carlson
Trump wants to suspend immigration. In a continuing effort to ramp-up animosity towards immigrants that has defined Trump’s presidency, he’s now making his intentions to close the United States to immigration clear.
This is the Right-Wing Populist Playbook
If you’re wondering where Trump got this idea, look no further than elite scumbag Tucker Carlson. Carlson signaled earlier this month that not only would Trump have the right to cut legal immigration under American law, but that it’d be the right measure in curtailing unemployment.
Originally, Trump’s argument for stopping immigration was to stop the spread of the coronavirus. This obviously makes sense, or at least it would if it were coming from someone who knew what they were saying and whose blood wasn’t poisoned by evil, but advocates worried that Trump was using coronavirus to push his immigration policies further.
Now we know that’s true. Eventually, the health concerns will become null, requiring Trump to return to an evergreen of racism: “the job market will become too competitive.”
This is exactly the kind of thing Tucker Carlson has used his platform for in recent years. He takes a real issue—say, pollution—and somehow twists the issue into being an anti-immigration topic. Talk about real problems that everyday people are aware of, create a boogeyman who is the cause of all those problems, blame that boogeyman to get votes.
Oh Boy, More Nationalism
Bottom line: I mean, what do you want us to say? This is contemporary white nationalism. This is what Trump’s presidency is about, it’s part of what it’s always been about, and in a sick, awful way, it proves the rising desire for populist movements in the United States. Can we just like, go back to blaming billionaires...please?
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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