21 December 20
Right Now We Don’t Have a Prayer of Finishing
Based on where we are at this point in the month and the pace at which the donations are coming in, we have no chance of meeting our budget for December.
It is absolutely critical that we find a way to get the flow of contributions moving.
In earnest.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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21 December 20
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News
FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Both Houses of Congress Finally Agreed on a COVID Relief Package, and Almost Nobody Was Happy With It
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I'm not sure when 'close enough' became a public policy goal."
ate Sunday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell magnanimously allowed the government to function, albeit at half-speed and six months too late. A relief package aimed at ameliorating some of the economic pain brought on by the pandemic passed both houses and was signed by the president*, and almost nobody was very happy with it. It's half-a-loaf, to be sure, but it would've been politically untenable for these people to go home for the holidays having done nothing at all. Even McConnell doesn't have enough brass for that.
(At the same time, the Congress passed a one-day spending bill to keep the lights on so they could get the agreement written up in proper legislative language, a process which, if not watched carefully, can be a fine vehicle for mischief.)
From The New York Times:
Although text was not immediately available, the agreement was expected to provide $600 stimulus payments to millions of American adults earning up to $75,000. It would revive lapsed supplemental federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week for 11 weeks — setting both at half the amount provided by the original stimulus law. It would also continue and expand benefits for gig workers and freelancers, and it would extend federal payments for people whose regular benefits have expired. The measure would also provide more than $284 billion for businesses and revive the Paycheck Protection Program, a popular federal loan program for small businesses that lapsed over the summer. It would expand eligibility under the program for nonprofits, local newspapers and radio and TV broadcasters and allocate $15 billion for performance venues, independent movie theaters and other cultural institutions devastated by the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Gone, apparently, is the odious corporate immunity proposal, and the deal to trade local aid for the immunity proposal fell of its own weight. Pat Toomey's attempt to preemptively cripple the Biden administration by depriving the Federal Reserve of ways to help it out is probably dead, although we should all wait to see what the final language looks like. The fact remains that the new package is painfully inadequate to deal with the fiscal crisis caused by the pandemic. By comparison, Canada's relief package is positively luxurious, as, apparently, Canadian politicians are not scared out of their mukluks at the prospect of a deficit. Canadian finance minister Chrystia Freeland explained why that is. From the BBC:
On Monday, Ms Freeland defended the record deficit as affordable - thanks to low interest rates - and necessary for Canada's economy. "As we have learned from previous recessions, the risk of providing too little support now outweighs that of providing too much," she said. "We will not repeat the mistakes of the years following the Great Recession of 2008."
That sound you hear is Messrs. Simpson and Bowles weeping into their official Pete Peterson coffee mugs.
At the same time, and assuming the final language isn't monkey-wrenched into something unrecognizable, this may have been close to being the best deal available. There is some well-founded concern that the Democrats in Congress missed the opportunity to wedge the Republicans on the direct payments to people. However, this requires a considerable leap of faith. You have to believe that people like Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri—and, even more improbably, the president*—were sincere in their attempts to increase the payments to $1,200. Nevertheless, compared to the Heroes Act passed by the Democratic House back in March, currently serving as a placemat on McConnell's desk, this legislation is pretty small beer. And there are provisions in the proposed package that, given the context of the times, are incredibly odious. For example, airlines got bailed out while restaurants are left hanging.
What seems particularly rickety is the theory that Congress will pass this package, and then pass a bigger one once Joe Biden is president. In the first place, the Democratic majority in the House would be a thin four votes and, even if the Democrats sweep the two Georgia Senate races, they will have a majority only through the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. None of this accounts for the cadre of "centrist" Democratic lawmakers who look as though they will have considerable clout in both chambers. And, as has been obvious for a month now, the Republicans are once again horrified by The Deficit because there's another Democratic president coming to town, and that's the way that goes. I don't believe that Biden's magic bipartisan skills will be enough to keep McConnell from screwing up anything he wants.
I don't know when it became doctrine that any deal that both sides hate must be a good one. Nor do I know when Close Enough became a public policy goal, but that's where we are. Some people will be helped by this package. Some people will be helped more than some other people will helped, because this is America, and we're so very special.
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