Kevin Drum
Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads over an interim coronavirus rescue bill. Let’s call it Rescue 3.5:
For now, Republicans leaders want to keep this measure narrow, focused exclusively on giving a $250 billion boost to the Paycheck Protection Program….“That by definition is a clean bill,” McConnell said in a floor speech. “I want to add money to the only part of our bipartisan bill that is currently at risk of running out of money.”
Democrats, however, disagree. They noted that the Paycheck Protection Program is not the only effort that needs more money…..Plus, while the CARES Act had already allocated money to health care providers and states and cities, Democrats note that it’s far from enough to make up for the lost revenue that these institutions are experiencing because of the coronavirus outbreak. In addition to the $100 billion that the CARES Act has for hospitals, and the $150 billion it has for states, Democrats are interested in adding more to cover costs like medical supplies and tax losses.
I find this a little puzzling. Donald Trump should be single-mindedly focused on opening the money firehose as widely as possible and as soon as possible. He wants to be reelected, and that means getting the economy back on track by October. That’s unlikely to happen if, say, state and local governments are cutting back just as everyone else starts spending again.
So his instructions to Mitch McConnell should be something like Give ’em anything they want! Hell, goad them into demanding more if you can!
And Democrats, hogtied as always by their ridiculous desire to actually help people, will go right along. So why are Republicans playing so coy?
