Having pissed away the months since House Democrats passed $3 trillion in coronavirus relief in the HEROES Act, Republicans have now decided that it is urgent, urgent, urgent to take action … but only a little bit of it. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, leading negotiations for the administration, is pushing for a partial bill that would cover just unemployment insurance—an extremely important thing, but one among many important things, and one being used as a cheap political ploy after Republicans pushed the nation over the brink on the issue.
The Trump administration is also reportedly looking for ways to take unilateral action, though without Congress, that is likely to be minor measures designed to allow Donald Trump to brag without substance, and dubiously legal minor measures at that. Two outside economic advisers publicly suggested that Trump unilaterally impose a payroll tax cut—something he really, really wants that is a non-starter with Congress—but that would definitely face legal challenges. But both the push for a partial bill and the talk of unilateral action are designed to cover up the lack of progress on the major relief package the nation needs Congress to pass and Trump to sign—a lack of progress that is squarely on Republicans’ shoulders after their months of inaction.
Republicans waited until there was an immediate crisis—millions of people losing the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits that has held the economy together through the pandemic—before starting to pretend to get serious about finding a way forward. It’s clearly an effort to blame the resulting trauma on Democrats and to force Democrats to accept an inadequate bill.
“We have to balance—there’s obviously a need to support workers, to support the economy, people who through no fault of their own are shut down because of this terrible disease,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on ABC’s This Week. “On the other hand, we have to be careful about not piling on enormous amounts of debt for future generations.”
This is economically illiterate, since destroying the economy will be the worst possible thing for future generations, and to choose just one item in the House Democratic bill that Republicans are opposing and Mnuchin singled out for criticism because, supposedly, “debt,” state and local governments have already shed 1.5 million jobs in the pandemic. Without $1 trillion in federal aid to those governments, job losses could hit 5.3 million by the end of 2021. Talk about screwing future generations!
In the same vein, Trump and Senate Republicans are calling for pitifully inadequate amounts of additional school funding while demanding that schools do the most expensive possible thing and reopen in person. Again, not exactly showing a deep concern for future generations, in this case the one they’re trying to send into unsafe schools. On the other hand, the Trump administration does want $377 million to remodel the White House (which, to be clear, is needed, but not exactly a coronavirus priority).
Basically, Trump and Senate Republicans are looking to do the smallest amount possible to put on a short-term Band-Aid, giving themselves something to brag about between now and November to boost their electoral chances before people notice all the things they didn’t do, things House Democrats pushed to do to shore up the economy through the entire crisis.