There are a number of reasonable stimulus items in the $1.9T relief bill that now sits between the house and the Senate, in negotiation.
$1400 individual checks, small business loans, Unemployment aid, rental assistance, etc.
Good things that go directly to the people who need help in this economy.
Then there are the list below, all pork, or buying votes, not helping people caught up in the lock downs, or because the economy is slow to come back.
The thing that is irksome about this is its all bundled together, with the Democrats saying take it all or nothing. Leverage good against bad game. The old game of bundling good and bad and then say my way or the highway. Nancy and Chucky playing the hold up game, votes have consequences, Nov 2020 sure has, and not for the good.
Take a look and think about the fact that we are spending money we do NOT have, do we really want to spend this money. Its our tax money that will have to pay it back, money out of our pocket, our children’s pocket, our grandchildren’s pockets.
- $15 minimum Wage [Update 2/25/21 10:25PM The Senate Parliamentarian said on Thursday night that a federal minimum wage hike to $15 per hour does not fit the criteria to be included in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.]YESSSSS!
- $1.5 million earmarked for the Seaway International Bridge, which connects New York to Canada. Senate Leader Chuck Schumer hails from New York.
- $50 million for “family planning” – going to non-profits, i.e. Planned Parenthood, or public entities, including for “services for adolescents[.]”
- $852 million for AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Vista, and the National Senior Service Corps – the Corporation for National and Community Service – civic volunteer agencies. This includes $9 million for the AmeriCorp inspector general to conduct oversight and audits of the largess. AmeriCorps received a $1.1 billion FY2020 appropriation.
- full-time federal employees can take up to 600 hours in paid leave until September 30, up to $35 an hour and $1,400 a week. That’s 15 weeks for a 40-hour employee. Part-time and “seasonal” employees are eligible, too, with equivalent hours established by their agency
- $200 million in the bill to The Institute of Museum and Library Services (FY2019 budget: $230 million). This agency is so small that it doesn’t even employ an inspector general.
- $270 million funds the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities (FY2019 budget: $253 million) – In 2017, our study showed eighty-percent of all non-profit grant making flowed to well-heeled organizations with over $1 million in assets.
- $350 billion to bailout the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The allocation formula uses the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2020. Therefore, states like New York and California –who had strict economic lock down policies and high unemployment – will get bailout money. States like Florida and South Dakota – who were open for business – will get less.
- $128.5 billion to fund K-12 education. The CBO determined that most of the money in education will be distributed in 2022 through 2028, when the pandemic is over.
- $86 billion to save nearly 200 pension plans insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. There are no reforms mandated while these badly managed pensions are bailed-out. Many of these pension plans are co-managed by unions.
- $50 billion goes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A portion of these funds is earmarked to reimburse up to $7,000 for funeral and burial costs related to Covid-19 deaths.
- $39.6 billion to higher education. This amount is three times the money – $12.5 billion – that higher ed received with the massive CARES Act funding from last March.
- $1.5 billion for Amtrak – the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. In FY2020, Congress appropriated $3 billion for Amtrak ($2 billion in annual appropriations, plus an additional $1 billion in the CARES Act COVID relief bill). In the three years before the pandemic, AMTRAK lost $392 million – even after a $5 billion taxpayer subsidy (FY2017-FY2019).