Trump & GOP: New Virus Stimulus Assistance Lighting a Candle with a Blow Torch

We want the Goldmine — those in need — Oops

(They get the shaft)

Very troubling story but one not unlike McConnell and Trump, Inc. 

That story from AlterNet – worth reading – a lot of facts from the GOP's relief bill documented here and with this story headline:

“Trump gets a lot of goodies in McConnell’s COVID-19 relief bill — and the American people get shafted”

While Republican senators were introducing their respective pieces of the new “coronavirus relief bill” that Mitch McConnell has cooked up, called the HEALS Act (Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “to begin formal negotiations” [which really shows where the power to pass the new bill lies], because what McConnell has offered is beyond ridiculous and doesn’t even have the support of probably half of his conference, and it has no support of any Democrats.

Sen. Bernie Sanders for example summed it up this way:

• $2 billion for F-35’s
• $1.75 billion for a new FBI building
• $1 billion for surveillance planes
• $375 million for armored vehicles
• $360 million for missile defense
• $283 million for Apache helicopters
• And, for millions of Americans facing eviction from where they rent and live: Zero as in $0.00.

That is a whole bunch of sweeteners McConnell had to throw in to get Trump appeased for not getting his payroll tax cut.

The stuff in it that’s actually related to the COVID-19 crisis is really very inadequate.

It does one good, modest thing: It gives another $1,200 direct payment and another good provision for children over age 17 will now be eligible for a $500 dependent payment.

That’s the whole of the good offered up by McConnell

In addition to the larding up of a public health bill with armaments and Trump bribes, McConnell's/GOP bill excludes:

Any increase in food assistance, rental assistance, student loan h

Nastiness in the McConnell package: Includes a cut to the weekly unemployment insurance (UI) boost from the now $600 to $200 temporarily while states set up a system to pay people 70% of their previous income (most Republicans want that in the next two months).

State unemployment officials are united in opposition to that idea as completely unworkable. How bad is it? For example:

Georgia’s Republican labor commissioner, Mark Butler, for example calls it “the dumbest idea ever.”

He then added: “We’re not the IRS. We don’t have your taxes. We don’t know what you made last year. Our stuff is based on you getting laid off by a particular employer and them reporting to us about what the wages are. So there’s that.”

That’s the sum total of how McConnell and camp plan to help needy people. Oh, yeah, but it does include at least $100 billion more for the problematic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Also, there is no new money for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments – just some tweaking of the restrictions on the previous $150 billion that was provided in the CARES Act so states have more flexibility.

The only new money directed to states is for schools, a large portion of it restricted to go only to schools that physically reopen.

But, is also has McConnell’s obsession, five-years of liability protection for businesses, healthcare providers, and others who might expose people to coronavirus infection.

The things beyond the military hardware, etc., put in to appease Trump, also includes an increase in business tax deductions for meals and entertainment. 

Presumably because so many people are now thinking (tongue in cheek moment):  “You know, if I could just deduct the full cost of a meal it would be worth going to a restaurant and exposing myself to a potentially fatal virus.”

That, it turns out, is why that new FBI building money is included. 

For years, Trump has been obsessed over a new headquarters to be built in downtown DC. The problem isn’t the new building, everyone agrees the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building needs replacing. The pre-Trump plan was a suburban campus, which was also just nixed by Trump.

That decision is still being investigated by the DOJ IG because what seems to be behind Trump’s move is the fear that the feds selling off the spot where the current building is to a developer who would build a hotel on the site, one block from Trump’s DC hotel.

Directly related to this topic a few more details: There remains wide agreement in both parties that the FBI needs a new headquarters at new campus location away from downtown where the current old crumbling facility is now located.

History: Trump’s decision shortly after taking office was to cancel an advanced plan to build a suburban campus and press for a new downtown location. Complicating efforts for a compromise are potential conflicts of interest stemming from Trump’s continued ownership of a hotel a block down Pennsylvania Avenue where the current FBI HQ is now, and if it is torn down, it would leave an empty lot for sale to any developer.

Ties to that: Before Trump was elected, officials at his company raised concerns about a competing hotel possibly being built in place of the Hoover Building (current location) should the FBI relocate to the suburbs as originally proposed and basically approved before he took office. 

White House officials (and right on course with Trump’s message) have denied that Trump’s business interests have anything to do with his plans for the bureau’s new headquarters in the same location.

Representatives at the FBI did not respond to questions about the provision but issued a statement saying that “the need for a new FBI headquarters facility has not abated” and that the bureau was working with Congress and the administration on a path forward.

In 2019, Trump’s company announced plans to sell the hotel’s lease, however, those plans are still on hold because of the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Concerns over Trump’s financial interests, however, prompted the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz to launch an investigation of the decision-making that led to the cancellation of the original plan. That investigation remains ongoing more than a year later, the inspector general’s office said Monday. A spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Bottom Line: Naturally because everything is always going to be about the Trump grift.

My 2 cents: Not much to add to this except to say this clearly shows who the GOP stands with a crisis or basically at any other time: The top crust who gives them tons of campaign money and they in turn give them tax breaks and goodies in return. This bill by McConnell shows that a clear as a bell.

Shame on him – he is never ashamed of anything he says or does – just like Trump, they both just duck, dodge, deflect, deny, and drive away.

Thanks for stopping by.