Amerikan Cornonavirus stimulation package: a PSA
Great for Big Bidness, a travesty for the working poor and either a one-time or two-time check nothingburger for the plebians. I just watched Mitch McConnell rant about some of the items the D want included (solar energy credits now?), and otherwise you can bet your bippies that the D Team has our backs!
The Ds and Rs were deadlocked last night, but will meet again today, according to the Guardian: $1,200 checks for all? What you need to know about the US coronavirus bailout; US government is debating bill of to $1.8tn for money going to businesses, corporations and directly into the pockets of Americans’, March 23, theguardian.com
What does the bailout look like?
Right now, the bill is estimated to be up to $1.8tn for money going to businesses, corporations and directly into the pockets of Americans.
Senate Republicans are at the helm of the package, though they need 60 votes to get it passed, which means they will need to compromise with Democrats.
The Republicans’ bill has four main components:
- direct payment to most Americans
- loans for small businesses
- hard-hit industries like the airlines
- and an increase in payments to the healthcare sector
When will this get done?
Talks stalled in the Senate on Sunday after Democrats worried the business bailout did too little to protect workers. A second vote has now been scheduled for Monday.
What has Congress done so far?
The first spending bill to combat the Covid-19 outbreak in the US was signed by the president earlier this month and is worth $8.3bn. The money is going toward the US health and human services department, state and local health departments and local community healthcare centers. A big chunk was earmarked for international response to the outbreak.
A second bill for paid sick leave and emergency paid leave worth $104bn was passed last week. The legislation excluded workers from large companies with more than 500 employees and allowed companies with under 50 employees to apply for exemptions. The bill mandates 10 days of paid sick leave and creates an emergency paid leave program for parents affected by their children’s schools closing for coronavirus-related reasons. It also expands food assistance programs and aids states’ unemployment insurance programs.
Are Americans really going to get direct checks from the government?
The Republicans’ plan is for individuals to get up to $1,200 and married couples to get up to $2,400, including $500 for each child. The size of a check would diminish gradually for those whose income is above $75,000, while those earning more than $99,000 will not be getting any checks. The checks will be based on a household or individual’s 2018 tax return.
Is there bipartisan agreement on these checks?
No. Some Republicans say the money will be a quick way to boost the economy. “These recommendations would blunt the impact for most Americans and limit the damage to the US economy,” said Senator Chuck Grassley, Senate finance committee chairman.
But Democrats say it will not help struggling Americans in the long run. Instead, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said that “beefed-up unemployment insurance” is a more sustainable way [blnk, blink] to help those who need it most. “A single $1,000 check would help someone pay their landlord in March, but what happens after that?” he said.
Also, the Republicans’ plan to divvy out checks has been criticized for screwing over low-income earners. Those who earn more than $2,500 will get, at minimum, $600. As taxable income increases, so will the amount of the check until it reaches $75,000. At that point, the amount decreases until it reaches $99,000, at which point a person gets nothing.
That means a person whose taxable income is $75,000 will get a larger check than someone who makes $30,000.”
[Actually Aratani’s screwing over link goes to vox.com’s ‘Senate Republicans’ cash assistance plan is far too limited; Too little help for children, low-income people, and those hit hard by the crisis’, noting:
“The way it works is that a single person who had little or no income tax liability last year gets a one-time payment of $600. [Say seniors benefiting from the newish Geezer Tax Credit] Then as your taxable income increases, that check goes up to $1,200. But then when you reach $75,000 in annual income, the size of the check starts going down again. For married couples, all those numbers double. And each child would be worth $500 in extra help.” [snip]
The shortcomings start with the fact that, reflecting longstanding conservative hostility to helping people who don’t have much market income, the people most in need of assistance get the least help here. Republican governors and the Trump administration have been trying for years to impose work requirements on Medicaid benefits, which studies show leads to lower enrollment but no change in employment. The White House is also pushing forward with a plan to impose more stringent work requirements on SNAP beneficiaries even as the economy collapses, likely leading 700,000 people to lose their benefits.”
“From a humanitarian standpoint, however, there’s something perverse about throwing together an emergency financial assistance program that gives the least assistance to those most in need. [But let’s get real here!] And from a macroeconomic standpoint, it’s the most desperate households that we can be most sure will immediately spend any money they get — thus doing the most to stabilize the economy.”
“The bill includes a little over $200bn in secured loans to airlines and other hard-hit industries. Specifically, $50bn will be up for commercial airline carriers to borrow and $8bn to cargo air carriers (the amount the industry trade groups have asked for), while $150bn for other industries affected by coronavirus, such as hotels and cruise companies.”
The SEP weighs in: ‘No corporate bailouts! Direct financial resources to the working people, not the capitalist elite!’, 23 March 2020, wsws.org
“Emergency funding to fully cover the lost wages and salaries of all working class and middle class families must be the urgent and unconditional priority of the economic response to the pandemic. Mortgage and rent payments, car loans, medical expenses, insurance premiums, and tuition and student debt must be suspended for the duration of the health crisis.
At the same time, small- and medium-size businesses must receive financial support so that they can avoid bankruptcy and reopen their enterprises as soon as medical conditions permit.
This program, which prioritizes the needs and interests of the working class, is diametrically opposed to the multitrillion-dollar “fiscal stimulus” that is being worked out in closed-door negotiations between the Trump administration, congressional leaders and corporate executives.
While deceitful and cynical lip service is being paid to protecting workers, the only purpose of the negotiations in Washington is to protect the wealth and profits of the superrich corporate-financial oligarchs. On a scale even greater than the bailout of 2008-09, the titans of Wall Street and the corporate boardrooms are demanding that the government place limitless sums at their disposal.
Up to this point, the federal government has spent less than $10 billion on emergency disaster relief related to the pandemic. And yet the US Treasury has purchased some $600 billion in securities in recent weeks, meaning it has spent 60 times more money propping up the banks than on addressing the healthcare crisis.
On top of the more than $2 trillion that has already been pledged to backstop the values of financial assets held by major banks, Congress is debating an additional $2 trillion bailout package.
The vast majority of that proposal consists in various handouts to business in the form of a payroll tax holiday and loans, including measures specifically targeting the airline and other industries. Less than $50 billion of the bill funds emergency measures to combat the pandemic. Just one company, Boeing, is demanding a bailout larger than every public health measure contained in the bill.
While the Republicans and Democrats haggle over details of the bailout, they agree that 1) massive sums of money must be funneled through the major corporations; 2) that no measures be taken that limit or threaten the wealth of the executives and large investors; and 3) that the interests of the capitalist profit system and private property will remain unmolested and unchallenged. The banks and large corporations will not only continue to rule. These institutions and their executives and large shareholders are to emerge from the crisis richer and more powerful than ever.
The New York Times declared in an editorial published yesterday, “The only practical way to limit mass unemployment, and to preserve previously viable companies, is for the government to pump money into the private sector.”
In 2019, US companies spent $798 billion buying back their own stock, a figure exceeding even what was spent before the 2008 financial crisis.
Share buybacks were one of the principal means employed by corporate executives to enrich themselves. As the Harvard Business Review explained:
The 465 companies in the S&P 500 Index in January 2019 that were publicly listed between 2009 and 2018 spent, over that decade, $4.3 trillion on buybacks, equal to 52% of net income, and another $3.3 trillion on dividends, an additional 39% of net income. In 2018 alone, even with after-tax profits at record levels because of the Republican tax cuts, buybacks by S&P 500 companies reached an astounding 68% of net income, with dividends absorbing another 41%.
Comments
Thanks Wendy, not surprising in the least. The only surprise is
that they didn't bury a raise for congress in there somewhere.
have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
welcome,
and great snark.
from naomi klein on twitter,
rather haphazardly.
Shocked that for once I agree with Schumer
The unemployment compensation system is already in existence and therefore, might be the quickest and/or best way to pay COVID-19 furloughed workers. Although I still think that it wouldn't have been that much more difficult for employers to continue issuing paychecks funded by the US bank of least resort.
i can see why schumer's plan
might seem attractive to those who ARE on unemployment, but that leaves out a hella lot of folks whose UI has long since run out, those on social security, those who've long since given up finding a job, folks working part-times jobs in the gig economy (some two or three at once),
as well as those struggling to find work as unemployment's reaching 30%, but haven't filed for unemployment insurance yet for any number of reasons. iirc, the 'right' to do so comes with some major caveats and hurdles, although i'd have too look those up again, especially in this current climate.
me.. i'd get $600 in the scheme above, on accounta the Geezer Tax Credit.
oh, and i should mention that there used to be a website that calculated the actual unemployment rate, about double of the published rate, but a couple years ago it was behind a paywall. but if the GDP is approaching a 50% loss, that's hellacious! i say Bail Out Big Bidness, BigPharma, and Mr. Market!/s Trickle Down Works! A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats!
i just grabbed Rt.com's coverage of the continuing deadlock, and i'll paste it in at the bottom. (my eyes seem to be rebelling again, but i can manage that.)
The most tone deaf comment in history
.
FFS how could Joe even think of saying this after what the MyBoss administration did when they bailed out the banks while leaving over 9 million people losing their homes and tens of thousands losing their jobs and pensions? We were told that the banks only got $700 billion and then we learned that got bailed out to the tune of $29 TRILLION!! And right now the banks are receiving $1 Trillion per day after receiving TRILLIONS in QE since September. My gawd this has to be the most hilarious and stupid saying in the history of people saying hilarious and stupid things. And this is who the dems have picked to beat Trump? LMAO.
The twits are saying that the video was done in front of a green screen. I am not able to watch this yet, but will later.
Bad News: Charlie took off for a walk early this morning. Mom is a wreck!
Good News: Charlie decide to come home and let mom stop worrying about where the hell she is and WILL she come home? 7 Hours!. She either climbed the fence. Again. Or she got out of the numerous holes in the fence that behind bushes where I can't fix them even if I had the money too. Bad/Good Dawg!
Runners up
Just laughing mao at this new meme coming from Rachel, Kos and other kids:
Yeah let's forget the last 3 years where people spewed so much crap about the fake crisis of Russian interfered with the election and that Vlad wants Trump to destroy the country. BTW this is why he flubbed the response to the epidemic.
ETA this video
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyjZ4SGjxJs&list=TLPQMjMwMzIwMjC-T3Qe-kC...
Saagar: "What did Obama do besides get elected? He was the worst legislative president who
When the history of his presidency is written he will be remembered for what he represented and the era of his neo liberalism and not for doing much f0r the 99%/
IS THIS ON?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hydtTOYkP0o&list=TLPQMjMwMzIwMjC-T3Qe-kC...
Typical Biden
The past is whatever he needs it to be at any given moment. Plus, you see, it was the right thing to do when they did it. When Trump/the GOP does it, no way!
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
but isn't that adorable?
he's finally an Official Obomba II: smile while ya lie to working families, then stick the knife in them. #CompradorJoe!
Damn Beagles!
They are able to get out, over, under, and away no matter what you do!
Glad she is home.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
blasting Donald Trump?
St. Francis of Assisi gave more forceful sermons to squabbling humming birds.
politicians are funny in a disastrous way
"the American public is in trouble! Let's give ourselves more money!"
The Key Paragraph
Democrats aren't arguing about the details because they want more for the little people. Instead, they're willing to throw more peanuts to the little people in order to secure the interests of the capitalist profit system.
Anybody that thinks Democrats are heroes in this battle is deluded.
Hiya, WD! Never fear--heard Nance earlier--she's 'prayerful' as
Dems (as usual) attempt to scr*w over seniors--that's been their primary objection to Repubs' move to send checks to individual households. IOW, Dems only want the "gainfully" employed to receive monetary assistance. Never mind that seniors are the primary cohort that'll (supposedly) be burdened by catastrophic medical and RX expenses--and, more likely, death--before this pandemic is over.
Guess it's partly because of the huge senior exodus from the Party (in 2010 midterms) after the enactment of the ACA, and the constant attempts to dismantle our social safety net (via striking a Grand Bargain). Apparently, the DP Leadership feels compelled to go out of its way to diss seniors, in any way they can. It's unconscionable, IMO.
Oh, Pelosi also declared that she wants the aid to be "evidence based." Again, shorthand for excluding seniors.
Let me count the ways how much I despise those people!
Good to see you. I'm nursing a bum ankle, and trying to put more time on community-centered activism. (now that Mr M has finally retired) Actually, we were very much enjoying it; now, of course, we're doing it virtually/online.
My best to Mr WD. Hope you're both doing as well as can be expected, under the circumstances. At least, like us, you're not in a CR hotbed (I'm guessing), since you Guys don't live in an urban area. Really feel bad for (and concerned about) those folks.
Blue
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
“Love makes you stronger, so that you can reach out and become involved with life in ways you dared not risk alone.”
~~Author Unknown, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD) Website
“In a world where you can be anything–be kind.”
~~Author Unknown
“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.”
~~Gilda Radner, Comedienne
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
jeezum crow, woman;
even with 'open in a new window' i have to scroll up a 18inches to read your comment! who are all those folks talking to me, anyway? and that must be your new doggie?
well, nancy's playing her part in the production as expected, isn't she? but WTF with this, and what does it even begin to mean?
this is straightforward enough, but again: paltry, comparatively, imo:
i dunno, it's all too surreal, isn't it? but: business as usual under a terrified capitalist economy.
ah, we're okay for the most part, i guess, but feelin' older than our ages after lifetime of hard work. our town's a ghost town with closings, folks still hoarding to beat the band (won't they get sated after a bit?). mr wd scored a six-pack of paper towels on friday at waldo world (wooot!), even after management had allowed their employees to shop from 6-7 a.m., and good on them! their wage slaves have likely gotten battle fatigue like on Black Fridays with all the fights and whatnot.
we have quite a bit of food and spices as medicine in the cellar, so at least what we eat's relatively healthy. glad you're enjoying retirement. ; )
Democrats. Sheesh!!
Democrats are holding out for a kitchen sink bill like the Grand Bargain of 2011. Which, as you might remember, never passed. In the Democratic alternative offered by Nancy Pelosi, some of the must-have items that have nothing to do with coronavirus or putting money into American's pockets include:
While that's a nice liberal wishlist of desirable social engineering, it seems deliberately designed to antagonize Republicans and ensure that no stimulus package at all passes.
ah! i see you must have
seen what i was about to put in from RT.com:
thanks, miz nacncy; we knew you'd have our backs!
[Edited] You nailed it, Edg, when you said,
it seems deliberately designed to antagonize Republicans and ensure that no stimulus package at all passes.
They're terrified of the political ramifications of millions of Americans--of all ages--receiving a check from Uncle Sugar, shortly before an election.
All those demands are the equivalent of poison pills, and they know it.
Could it be because they've read recent polls--in spite of being an imbecile, DT's approval ratings regarding his handling of this crisis, have gone up appreciably in the past week. IIRC, from 43% to the low 50's (can't remember exact figure).
I have no doubt that this is what all the phony 'grandstanding' is about.
As far as we're concerned, they can "go to h*ll in a hand basket." Getting up a Twitter Account to go over all the cuts to our Social Safety Net that 'O' and the Dems attempted to pass for 6 years per the Cat Food Commission proposal--"The Moment Of Truth." (Bowles-Simpson, IOW)
It's gotten personal for us--Dem austerity measures in the 2015 budget legislation cost Mr M and I beau coup bucks, since we couldn't "file and suspend" our Social Security benefits. Frankly, we're sick and damn tired of their lies and deceptions.
Hmpft!
Off soapbox, for now . . .
[Edited: Added 'frankly.' Also, deleted approximate figure for file and suspend--Mr M said he could only run an 'estimate' of how much the loss of this particular filing tool has cost us, since we don't have his final SS figures, yet. Added emoticon.]
Mollie
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
“Love makes you stronger, so that you can reach out and become involved with life in ways you dared not risk alone.”
~~Author Unknown, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD) Website
“In a world where you can be anything–be kind.”
~~Author Unknown
“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.”
~~Gilda Radner, Comedienne
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
oh, my; lots of calls now to
just jump to UBI, depending on how much per month, etc., which devils are always in the details, and likely mean the end of all of the remaining social safety net, and would likely depress wages in any event.
but ya gotta love this one:
@cordeliers
Debt is not cancelled or written off. The banks will get their vig, but working people will pay for it.
How will they pay for it?
With no money? And no one will have any money after all this if they don't do something. UBI or nothing!!
This shit is bananas.
as i understand it,
that is their total coronvirus stimulus, and if you click thru, even (shiver) mitch mcconnell said close to 'holy crow, there are other people proven to need the money to survive (sorry, my brain's played out by now, and i'd read it hours ago).
it may be silly to even post any parts of this as
the compromise deal is still 'Very Fluid', 'In Flux',lol. this a.m.'s msn.com (our email provider) featured this from the WaPo, which is otherwise always behind paywall for me now. anonymous sources not authorized...ruled, as so often.
'Senate negotiators cite progress on coronavirus bill after day of drama and rancor', this a.m., WaPo
briefly: