Why Are Republicans Being Cheapskates?

Kevin Drum

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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?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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