Thursday, March 26, 2020

A Plague of Democratic Partisanship

An overwhelming majority of Americans are worried about the financial effects of state and local measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, yet the Democrats continue to dither over an economic stimulus bill.

Late Wednesday, the Senate finally passed an emergency relief package but only after overcoming a threat by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to put a hold on the bill.

Despite the prominent role played by Sen. Charles Schumer in hammering out the Senate bill, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that it would be terrible for his state: "I spoke to our House congressional delegation this morning, I said to them 'this doesn't do it.' I understand the Senate theory and the Republican theory but we need the House to make adjustments." New York has been hard hit by coronavirus pursuant to the density of its population and Cuomo's inability to convince the residents of New York City to take him seriously on social distancing.

Sen. Sanders, who is of course running for the Democratic presidential nomination, threatened to put a hold on the bill if Republicans Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, Ben Sasse, and Rick Scott failed to support a provision in the bill that will pay some workers more in unemployment benefits than they would earn by working.

Unless these Republican Senators drop their objections, I am prepared to put a hold on this bill until stronger conditions are imposed on the $500 billion corporate welfare fund to make sure that any corporation receiving financial assistance under this legislation does not lay off workers, cut wages or benefits, ship jobs overseas, or pay poverty wages.

On Saturday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew in from the coast, and, though she isn't a member of the Senate, by Sunday morning the deal was dead. This outraged the Senate Republicans who had worked on the bill.

The answer, of course, is that that the Democrats decided to hold the legislation hostage until the GOP agreed to insert various provisions that have nothing to do with the purpose of the bill.

https://spectator.org/a-plague-of-democratic-partisanship/

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