Saturday, May 16, 2020

Are even Democrats waking up to their $3-trillion stimulus mistake? - Monica Showalter


by Monica Showalter

Why would a Democrat, who knew this massive pork program was "dead in the water" in the Senate, still vote "no" on it, undoubtedly enraging House speaker Nancy Pelosi?


One good stimulus deserves another. Or so the Democrat logic goes.

Coming on the heels of the $2-trillion March 27 "Coronavirus Relief Aid, Relief and Stimulus" (CARES) Act, which they bitterly signed onto (not containing all the pork they asked for), Democrats vowed a second stimulus with what they really wanted — all of it — and less than two months later, they've rolled it out — the $3-trillion HEROES act.

There's just one problem with this raining-money concoction: twelve Democrats voted against it, making this not just "dead in the water," as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said, but actually cause for concern for Democrats. After all, if a bill is not going to pass in the Senate, what's the harm in voting for it? Yet twelve Democrats still said "no."

Spearheaded by squad-style leftist Rep. Pramila Jayapal, it was like a two year-old getting into the cookie jar and flinging the contents all over.

Nearly every last Democratic Party pet cause was there — free money for illegal aliens who will have new reasons to hotfoot it across the border, huge pension bailouts for overpaid public servants, whose earnings vastly outstrip those in the private sector, and who got those pensions based on public employee union donations to Democrats, federal funds for something called "cannabis banking," money for mail-in voting, the better to set the stage for nationwide ballot-harvesting — the horror is obvious. It passed in the House, of course, and were it to get through the Senate, the taxpayers who make much less money are going to have to shell out, and the six-hour lunch crowd and the bureaucrats will be free to continue their profligate lifestyle. Fiscal mismanagement will be rewarded, wasteful, and unsustainable greenie projects will roll in the dough.

It's incredibly unpopular, and coming on the heels of the last stimulus just a few weeks ago, it looks to be the height of irresponsibility. Hadn't we just spent an unprecedented $2 trillion for the last stimulus? How soon they forget. Soon as one stimulus is spent, they want another, and this one hasn't even been entirely spent yet.

We still don't know how this previous stimulus is going to get paid back, given the persistent and extended state of lockdowns, a prison term, preventing Americans from earning a living. With 16% of Americans unemployed, how will the tax base even raise it?

It's also very cynical. New York's Governor Cuomo stated that he thought it would go through because political leaders (read: Trump and Congress) wouldn't dare try to run for election without it.



In response to a New York reporter who literally asked "whaddaya gonna do" about 20% coming cuts to state and local government, Cuomo said federal cash would have to come to the states as a result of Congress coming through, offering this reasoning:
The survival instinct of a politician who has to run for reelection this year, in this state, or any state affected by COVID, which is most states, they will not come home and stand for reelection if they don't provide funding for state and local governments, because they would have created a devastating circumstance in their state. If we have to cut schools, police, fire, hospitals, because Washington didn't provide reasonable funding, when they did bail out millionaires, and billionaires, and rich corporations, but they're not going to fund police and fire? I don't think any Washington official is goingto come home and present that case to people they represent. So, I believe we will receive Washignton funding, due to the survival instinct of political officials.
You notice he doesn't mention laying off bureaucrats in his list; he goes for the old police and fire to shake out more federal money. It's a sign he's still viewing the coronavirus crisis as business as usual, given that he's playing the old game of holding visible and well liked public employees who do useful work such as teachers hostage, in order to prevent cutting the backroom fat among the diversity officers and deputy directors for green compliance.

After that, he ranted about "holding them accountable" — for paying the bills for his fiscal mismanagement.

What it explains is the Democratic governors' enthusiasm for lockdown. Lock down the economy, fail to find ways to put people back to work, forget about earning money through the tax base, and just wait for the federal cash. Someone will pay for it; it's political instinct, as Cuomo posits. Each leftist expects some other state to pay, or money to be just printed out on demand.

Not a one of them focuses hard on what needs to be focused on now, which is making government efficient and sustainable, given the pandemic, and getting the tax base back up. Who needs a tax base when all you need to do is Blame Trump?

It's dangerous thinking, which is why it's so significant that twelve Democrats, overriding House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who normally brooks no dissent, nevertheless broke ranks and said no. They knew that this would enrage her, yet they did it anyway.

Some of these characters know which way the political winds are blowing.

Image credit: Pixabay public domain.

Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/are_even_democrats_waking_up_to_their_3_trillion_stimulus_mistake.html

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