It's been 199 days since the House passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, and 61 days since the House passed their compromise $2.2 trillion bill, both of which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to consider. He has instead offered a few "skinny" proposals filled with poison pills, which he knew Democrats would reject, to allow his Republicans to say they tried to do something before the election.
Now that the we're past the election and the coronavirus pandemic is getting far worse across the nation, McConnell is offering another inadequate and dangerous proposal, reportedly with Trump administration approval. It does not provide any funding for state and local governments. It includes just one month's worth of extended emergency unemployment insurance for both gig workers and for regular workers, but does not include any extra weekly benefits above normal universal income (UI)—no $600/week bump. Not even the $300/week bump that was in the September skinny bill from Republicans. It provides exactly $0 in direct stimulus payments. It does not extend the federal moratorium on evictions. It does not extend student loan payment forbearance.
It does include the "Free Pass to Tyson for Murdering Workers" provision, which he is calling "Safe to Work" because he is a fucking monster. It also includes 100% deduction for business meals because that's really how you deal with millions of people going hungry. It doesn't raise the limits for SNAP benefits. It does include $300 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program small business loans because of course it does, even though it hasn't really worked. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) It tosses in $100 billion for education, $31 billion for vaccine distribution, and $16 billion for more testing.
It ends unilateral lending authority for the Federal Reserve and Treasury with any unspent funds, meaning President-elect Joe Biden won't have any of that available. It creates barriers for people trying to qualify for unemployment insurance, making them jump through additional hoops with short deadlines, which he calls "guardrails against fraud." Again, because McConnell is a fucking monster who wants to inflict the maximum amount of suffering and to hogtie Biden's new administration, all while claiming that Republicans acted on the crisis.
This is garbage. It comes at the absolute worst point in the pandemic with an unprecedented surge in cases nationwide and with months ahead before the vaccine helps get us out of the pandemic. Millions are going hungry. And McConnell's focus is on letting businesses get off scot-free for endangering, even killing, their employees. Oh, and free business meals. Because he is a fucking monster.
