thebigp

By Paul Waldman -Opinion writer
March 30, 2020
While the economic rescue package was being negotiated in Congress, Republicans pulled out a time-tested strategy: Find a frivolous-sounding provision your opponents put in their proposal, then have everyone bring it up over and over to make it look like they’re being unreasonable.
In this case it was $25 million in funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; any regular viewer of Fox News would have seen the Kennedy Center mentioned a dozen times.
There was some t***h there; the Democratic proposal did contain longstanding priorities that weren’t directly related to this p******c, even if in the scope of the enormous package they represented little more than pocket change. But Republicans succeeded in conveying the impression that only Democrats were larding up the bill with unnecessary pork.
Full coverage of the c****av***s p******c
In fact, Republicans got plenty in the final bill that they wanted, items that give particular help to favored and influential industries. And that may be only part of what we come to regret about the rescue package.
Here are some of the provisions Republicans made sure were in the bill. This is not a comprehensive list, just a sampling:
• A windfall for real estate investors allowing them “to use losses generated by real estate to minimize their taxes on profits from things like investments in the stock market. The estimated cost of the change over 10 years is $170 billion,” according to the New York Times.
• $17 billion in loans for “businesses critical to maintaining national security,” a provision seemingly targeted solely at Boeing.
• $25 billion in grants and $25 billion in loans for the airline industry.
• A series of regulatory changes sought by the banking industry.
• A tweak to the tax code, retroactive to 2018, allowing certain retailers to more quickly write off expenses they incurred upgrading their properties.
• A series of other tax changes that in many cases take concessions business made in exchange for lower tax rates in Trump’s 2017 tax cut and eliminate them for a period of years. As one budget expert said to me, “corporations and pass-through owners are having their cake from [the 2017 tax cut] and eating it too.”
• A gift to for-profit colleges: They’ll be able to keep loan money for students who drop out due to the c****av***s.
• Help for manufacturers of “innovative” sunscreen technology.
• A six-month extension of funding for abstinence-only education.
• An expansion of the services that health savings accounts, which mostly benefit wealthier people, can pay for.
• A provision allowing many hotel chains to access the $350 billion in loans intended for small businesses if their individual hotels employ fewer than 500 workers each. Unlike the loans in the fund intended for large businesses, many of these loans will not have to be repaid if the money is used mostly to keep workers on the payroll. This could allow large firms with the ability to successfully navigate the program to scoop up a significant portion of this fund, potentially pushing aside actual small businesses.
Anyone who was under the impression that only Democrats sought to insert non-germane items like funding for the Kennedy Center was sorely mistaken.
That’s just a small part of what could turn out to be problematic. There are also aspects of the headline big-ticket items that could run into serious problems. For instance, the Small Business Administration is ordinarily a relatively small agency that provides loan guarantees; its entire operating budget in 2020 is less than $1 billion, a tiny amount by federal standards. And it doesn’t exactly have a reputation for efficiency and competence.
Yet now the SBA is being tasked with overseeing the distribution of $350 billion in loans to small businesses, larger by an order of magnitude than what it’s ever done before. Economists and budget experts I’ve spoken to have repeatedly cited this as a potential bureaucratic disaster in the making.
Then there are the shortcomings in the positive things the bill does.
The one-time payment of $1,200 for adults and $500 for children is too little and ought to be just the first of multiple payments. If the IRS doesn’t already have your bank information for a direct deposit, it may be months before you’re mailed a check.
The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the c****av***s has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us.
What’s more, the bill includes no automatic triggers to extend the beefed-up unemployment benefits. And the aid to states — which is vital to help them avoid a budgetary death spiral as they face massive costs and plummeting revenue, then are forced by balanced-budget laws to slash services — is far too small.
And the oversight of the largest portion of the bill, the half-trillion dollars that will be distributed to large companies, is not nearly strong enough. Not only that, President Trump said in a signing statement that he’ll refuse to comply with the oversight that exists.
Some have argued that Democrats should have simply refused to negotiate, instead handing Republicans their bill and saying “Take it or leave it.” Whether that would have worked, it’s not what they did. And every Democrat in Congress, even the most progressive ones, ended up supporting the bill despite misgivings about the corporate-friendly provisions. They felt that at this moment of crisis there was no choice.
But we shouldn’t just move on and forget about the gifts that this unprecedented legislation handed out.. As usual, those with the most power and influence got what they wanted. Now we have to make sure that the implementation doesn’t turn into a whole new opportunity for graft and abuse.

SOURCE-Paul Waldman -Opinion writer-

roy

Well is it not the same all the time with republicans,like shame on democrates for holding up bills,to help us through this v***s,when it's just as much republicans fault because they want more things that will help the rich get a free ride.I do like the one where mitch got a suntan company money in kentucky.But just wait old Nancy fixing to hold up another big give away so hang on for people on opp blasting her and chuck for not caring about the country,and I will add Nancy is a piece of crap and so is shummer, and their gang.But also mitch and his gang and the whole bunch should be kicked out tared and feathered,and that is from the very top,and I mean very top to the bottom

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

What is in that bill dummy that gives the rich a free ride? You just leapfrogged lonewuss as the dumbest poster on OPP.

PJT

Of course the stimulus bill helps businesses even big businesses. It helps people keep jobs and keeps jobs open for a recovery. It helps stimulate job and industry growth.
Dems ridicule any help for business and mis-explain the value of doing so. Business creates jobs and produce. The bill does not create handouts to make more people dependent on government without working or producing. Some of will help bring businesses back to the USA particularly from China.
Wal-Mart and other stores should start to be Werner off of Chinese goods. Pharmaceutical production needs to be brought back to the USA.
The above will outrage Pelosi, Sanders, AOC, Ilan, Schiff, Schumer, Biden, and their big media propaganda outlet that seems to love C*******t China. Awwww!