How Much Relief Will You Get?
None, if the GOP held sway
The Biden pandemic relief bill will see some minor adjustments to satisfy a few Democratic Senators like the moderate Shaheen/NH and the conservative
Manchin/WV.
Per the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, single earners making $75K a year and couples making $150/K a year would receive the full $1400 stimulus check in the revised plan ($2800 for a couple).
That means 280 million out of 331 million would get the boost, 17 million fewer than the plan passed by the House. Singles making more than $900,000/yr and couples making more than $1,800,000 would be excluded.
It will be a badly needed boost for minimum wage workers making $15,080/yr and others at income levels close to that like the grocery workers, farmworkers, cannery workers and those at other food processing plants, delivery drivers, custodial workers, dishwashers, cooks, nursing home employees and daycare workers who remained on the front lines of the pandemic throughout.
Laid off workers still unemployed would also receive an extra $400/wk through August if they remain unemployed that long. That unemployment benefit works out to $20,800/yr, which is higher than the total annual income of the minimum wage worker at $15,080/yr.
Per the Washington Post:
>> Senior Democratic officials had at one point considered dropping the full benefit for those making more than $50,000 per year, a change they ultimately abandoned after a backlash led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). <<
An email expressing gratitude for those two liberal Democrats would be a nice gesture though approximately 15% of Americans still lack internet access.
I’m more optimistic than many and believe that all states well-governed can be fully reopened economically by July 1st so 3/2020 - 6/2021 is the likely 16 month span that the Biden stimulus checks and prior bipartisan stimulus checks covered. (Unless the new mutant viruses from Brazil and elsewhere reinfect previously infected Americans or vaccines prove incapable of blocking them in substantial numbers).
If my time estimate bears out, that means Americans will have gained relief of $200/month if Biden’s bill passes. Let’s compare that to what several of our allies have provided their citizens.
It seems unthinkable that 50 Republican Senators will vote against this package but so far only Lisa Murkowski/AK has indicated she may support it. Her support may be tied to other parts of the relief bill like aid to states who’ve suffered tax revenue losses due to the pandemic as Alaska has suffered the highest percentage of revenue losses in the country.
More Republican-dominated red states have suffered revenue losses than Democratic-dominated blue states, with major losses in two heavily populated red states (TX and FL). Big blue states like NY and IL have endured far smaller losses and the biggest state of all - California - registered a small gain.
In addition to the stimulus payments, unemployment extension and aid to states and cities needing help to maintain essential services, most of the rest of the Biden relief and reopen plan will be spent on vaccine distribution costs, and the upgrade needs of schools that will be reopening soon.
Republican Senators remain committed to blocking all domestic legislation proposed by a Democratic president because they prefer to limit any chance that it will boost Biden’s popularity. Rather than helping a majority of Americans.
But that’s how destructive partisan politics by elected Republicans has been for more than a quarter century. In 1992 when 2/3rds of Americans were clamoring for affordable national healthcare, they successfully blocked the Clinton plan and since the 2009 passage of the Affordable Care Act that provided healthcare to tens of millions of uninsured Americans, they’ve relentlessly tried to eliminate it.
Following the lead of their Congressional and White House leaders instead of providing for the needs of constituents has become a feature, not a bug, of federal Republican choices.
And they remain the first to clamor for bipartisan unity, adding hypocrisy to their failing efforts to represent Americans. Many feign outrage about the gender of a plastic toy (formerly known as Mr. Potato) or the protection of racially demeaning and insulting books (a few lesser known Dr. Seuss books) and statues (mostly slave owners and Confederate generals defending same). And most have blocked increases in wages or safety nets for millions of working Americans and the vulnerable poor.
The Biden relief package remains on track to be passed by March 14th with stimulus checks mailed before March ends.
Today is the day still delusional Q-Anon ingesters and other conspiracy addicts hope to see another violent effort to overthrow the legal outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, with ex-president Trump installed after the bloody coup.
They’re going to be disappointed. Most Q-Anon true believers maintain an online presence but few show up for the violent uprisings. And the militant groups that utilize violence are too busy trying to hide or cover their asses from the ongoing FBI investigation of the January 6th attempt to overthrow the US Congress.
That doesn’t mean we won’t see some lone-wolf actors causing trouble in DC or elsewhere. It just means they won’t succeed in any effort to oust the current President anytime soon.
But speaking of investigations into the Capitol overthrow effort, some things from the recent Congressional investigation are eye-opening.
>> The D.C. National Guard’s commander, Major Gen. William J. Walker, delivered opening remarks describing his call with Sund, who testified last week of the pro-Trump mob: “These criminals came prepared for war.”
Immediately after ending his phone call with Sund at 1:49 p.m., Walker reported alerting the Army Senior Leadership of the request—only to have that emergency alert slow-walked.
“The approval for Chief Sund’s request would eventually come from the Acting Secretary of Defense and be relayed to me by Army Senior Leaders at 5:08pm–three hours and 19 minutes later,” Walker wrote in his prepared remarks. <<
Also:
>> During the question-and-answer session, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked Walker about reports that help was delayed out of a concern for optics, and the National Guard commander replied that the two participants on the call who mentioned optics were Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt.
Flynn is the younger brother of Donald Trump loyalist Michael Flynn, who proposed that the 45th president impose martial law in service of his election-overturning efforts. <<
But the lack of preparation for the assault that day was caused by the Acting Secretary of the Army. President Trump repeatedly used ‘Acting’ officials who followed his instructions, officials that weren’t approved by the Senate who could escape Congressional oversight. In the two days prior to the assault on Congress, one acting official was overruled by another.
>> An exchange with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, revealed that then-Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy restrained Walker from deploying the D.C. National Guard’s Quick Reaction Force (QRF).
On Jan. 4, Walker obtained permission Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller to use the QRF in cases of “last resort,” but McCarthy overruled that a day later in a memo stating that he would “withhold authority” except in response to a request from an appropriate civil authority.
“I will require a concept of operation prior to authorizing employment of the QRF,” McCarthy wrote.
Bemoaning the fact that the Department of Defense did not send “anyone who was actually there at the time” to explain the shake-up, Sen. Portman appeared startled by the reversal.
“I also thought it was odd, and I think you said it was unusual and very prescriptive, that the Jan. 5 letter required the Secretary of the Army to approve the movement of deployed guardsmen from one traffic control point to another,” the senator told Gen. Walker. “Did you find that unusual?”
Walker responded that he had never seen that happen in 19 years, and the restrictions were so tight that day that National Guard could not move one block without the Pentagon’s permission. <<
Source: Law & Crime
And while the partisans fiddle-fart around with our lives, here’s one for the unsung glue that’s kept our country together: parents.
And, because I needed a bit of happy funk to say Happy Birthday to my kid sister today, here’s a new take on an old Tower of Power classic.
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