House Passes Blue Pork 'COVID-19 Relief' Bill

The bill includes $75 billion for vaccines, treatments, testing, and medical supplies.

The bill also includes $7.2 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, $15 billion for economic injury disaster loans, $26 billion for restaurants, bars, and live venues struggling with the lockdowns, and $15 billion in payroll support for airlines.

For starters, the COVID-19 "Relief" bill bails out state and local governments to the tune of $350 billion, even though state revenues have largely recovered since the spring.

While the CARES Act distributed money by state population, the $220 billion for states in the new bill will be allocated based on average unemployment over the three-month period ending in December.

The bill includes $35 billion for subsidies to defray Obamacare premiums and $15 billion for a temporary five-percentage-point increase in the federal Medicaid match to states that expand eligibility to lower-income adults.

The bill includes $39 billion for child care, $30 billion for public transit, $19 billion in rental assistance, $10 billion in mortgage help, $4.5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program, $3.5 billion for food stamps, $1 billion for Head Start, $1.5 billion for Amtrak, $50 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $4 billion to pay off the loans of "Socially disadvantaged" farmers and ranchers, and nearly $1 billion in global food assistance.

Back in March 2020, Democrats suddenly blocked a COVID-19 relief bill - after a bipartisan team of then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had worked out numerous compromises to rush the legislation.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/02/27/just-how-much-of-the-1-9t-covid-19-relief-bill-dems-just-passed-is-actually-about-covid-n1428808