I’m OK, But I’ll Take the Money
Terry H. Schwadron
March 14, 2021
There’s a rush of political comment about the wide-sweeping nature of the Joe Biden $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid and economic stimulus bill, a combination of surprise that centrist Biden has emerged as a political progressive and over its reach to offer actual financial help to so many left adrift in the pandemic.
Of course, there has been a rush of Republican criticism too, matching the party’s complete shutout in support. Basically, the GOP position is that we’re offering too much help, spending too much taxpayer money, pushing a “liberal wish list” and, oh yeah, advancing partisan thinking that is not about halting cancel culture, abortion, gun control or cutting taxes.
So, yes, we’ve seen the first GOP lawmakers Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., step forth to take credit for helping restaurants though he opposed the bill. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader who wants to become majority leader again, noted that we haven’t yet spent all the money raised — and mostly committed over time — from the last bill. One of my favorites so far has been Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who has sent to governors and mayors what he calls a “simple and common sense” demand for the 50 states to reject the $350 billion in federal stimulus money. He demanded that the money only be used to reimburse specific pandemic-fighting measures, and not for any deeper investments in infrastructure or economic development.
Right, that’s not going to happen.
Uh, No
It took Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, not only to reject the rejection, but to whine that Florida had not gotten enough money from the feds. Now that’s whatever conservatives would call chutzpah.
“The Senate didn’t correct the fact that Florida is getting a lot less than what we would be entitled to on a per capita basis,” DeSantis said. Florida, which has a $2 billion deficit as the result of Covid, is set to receive $10 billion under the plan.
The Florida state Senate Budget Committee Chair Kelli Stargel, another Republican, told reporters that returning the money would only recycle it to New York or California or other hated Blue States.
Talking Points Memo.com noted that some Republican -controlled state houses were seeking to use the stimulus money to finance deep tax cuts. But last-minute changes to the legislation by Senate Democrats prevents that from happening.
The American Rescue Plan bill stipulates that states receiving the money cannot use it to “offset a reduction” in tax revenue due to any law passed during the time that the funds are available — from now until 2024. Lawmakers in Kansas, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, and other states have all suggested that aid to state and local governments could be used to finance state tax cuts. Mississippi and West Virginia are pushing outright elimination of the state income tax.
The question is how far Republicans at the state or federal level will go to keep help from reaching Americans in need.
The Broader Picture
Republican reactions to the bill, in fact, seem to be focusing more on Biden’s nationwide speech Thursday than on getting aid out to individuals and small businesses, on digging in on local efforts to streamline applications for aid, readying school rooms with ventilation issues or stopping coronavirus by widening vaccine and testing efforts. They’d rather we just declare early victory and move on — whether for the sake of politics, economics or convenience.
Instead, commentators from the Right have been focused on Biden’s presentation style, on his occasional stutter, on failing to give enough credit to The Former Guy for investing in faster vaccine development — and on insisting on masks. Rather than celebrate that we were hearing a non-egotistical evaluation of where we stand, we got strained vitriol.
Somehow, even Biden’s statement that if Americans continue vaccinating at current rates, we’ll be in good shape by July 4 is being turned around — into denying Americans’ individualism and dictating when Americans can celebrate safely in small groups. I don’t get it: If we had a broken leg and set it, it would still take a number of weeks to set in a cast. There’s no denial of individualism involved, just medicine. What’s different here?
Here’s Breitbart’s chief editor Alex Marlow: “It seemed like he left out virtually everything other than the guy really likes vaccines and masks. He didn’t talk about personal responsibility. He didn’t talk about the government’s role in any of these anti-science lockdowns. He didn’t talk nearly enough about the fact that we could probably open up all of our schools today. He didn’t talk at all about the fact that this virus came from China. He didn’t talk about the fact that the virus is coming over our borders.”
If you can get by all the partisanship, you might like a thought from Slate: “It seems like some portion of the country is going full-force against public health guidance and another portion is staying very, very cautious, even at the cost of a lot of energy and mental health. I don’t mean to suggest that everyone is either gathering for spitting contests in basements or else hermetically sealed in their living rooms. . . So many people I talk to are living at 90 percent while stressing over that last 10 percent.”
The Republican vision is that individuals will rise to take personal responsibility for all of it without government involvement, as if we’re not still seeing thousands of new pandemic cases while witnessing Spring break beach gatherings and full restaurants in Texas and Florida.
The happy talk in Texas and Florida risks more disease and trouble as the virus mutates. None of it, not ignoring medicine, not jumping the gun for the sake of the economy, not underscoring the need to mobilize — and not the “100% Open” claims of a growing number of states — will fix what’s still dangerous.
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