The capacity for the "bipartisan," "both-sides," kumbaya kind of Democrat to confuse capitulation and compromise really is something awful to behold. Witness the latest from a new bipartisan "gang" attempting to find a COVID-19 stimulus breakthrough by giving into Sen. Mitch McConnell's worst demand "temporarily." Also by not doing the one thing that would help the most right now: direct stimulus payments to everyone. Because not doing the most helpful and most popular thing in the pursuit of compromise is how these people think.
Here are the Democratic culprits, names that will likely not shock you: Sens. Chris Coons, Joe Manchin, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, and Mark Warner, as well as independent Angus King. They're working with all the Republicans McConnell regularly rolls over: Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Bill Cassidy. What they've proposed is $300/week bump to unemployment insurance, down from the $600/week that was included in the CARES Act; $300 billion more to the troubled and less than effective Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) small business loans; $250 billion in funding to state and local governments; $50 billion to health care and vaccine distribution; and a temporary liability shield for corporations to not have to worry about protecting their workers. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) During the most dangerous time yet in this pandemic. When we've already seen instances of companies killing workers by not giving them the protection they need to stay healthy.
Seriously. They left out stimulus checks. Even McConnell hasn't ruled them out in negotiations this fall. The one thing that would help the most people the most right now—as well as keep the economy sputtering along—would be to put money in people's pockets right now. The nation's top economists have been clamoring for it, calling "direct cash payments […] one of the quickest, most equitable, and most effective ways to get families and the economy back on track." And they left it out. To fund PPP loans. Loans. That have to be paid back unless the small businesses taking them can meet sometimes impossible standards. That's what these yahoos are suggesting. This is what the rest of the world is doing:
And this is what these great minds came up with:
Just. Give. Everyone. Money. Now.
