Posted on 03/23/2020 4:04:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
While Congress fiddles and the U.S. economy is left to burn, the citizens are the ones being asked to bear the full weight of this crisis. Now is not the time for business as usual, it is time for a post-pandemic reality. The old ways of red tape and kick-backs to favored groups and special interests must end now.
A crisis of liquidity for individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies will soon send our economy into even further decline unless the federal government acts quickly and decisively.
On Thursday, the Washington Times published my proposal for a Temporary Income Replacement Act that I challenged Congress to pass. The Act would authorize sending a $3,000 payment to every man, woman, and child in America. While I know that adds up to $1 trillion (330 million times $3,000), we are apparently about to spend that much anyway, but it looks like our leaders plan to do it in traditional pork-barreled and crony capitalist fashion.
Does anybody believe we are going to spend less than $3 trillion anyways before this is over? This time, if we are going to spend it, we ought to let the American people decide how to spend it. It’s their money after all.
I urged Congress in that piece just four days ago, an eternity in this rapidly moving story, to act immediately and not tie the program up in means testing and overly bureaucratic processes and determinations.
Sadly, every indication we have is that Congress is still behaving in its pre-pandemic partisan manner.
The bill proposed by Senate Republicans on Thursday, the day I made my proposal, is filled with means-testing requirements and bureaucratic red tape. Only some people appear to be scheduled to receive a direct payment under this proposal, and the qualifications to be approved look like they will take too much time to move through the bureaucracy. Instead of the simple and straightforward one-time, lump-sum payment of $3,000 I proposed, the proposals being discussed are of varying amounts, all depending on conditions.
This is not bold leadership. This is business as usual and middle-class Americans are being crushed.
And, as UPI reported on Sunday, Democrats and Republicans are squabbling over the elements of the program. While they indicate that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said, “I think we have a fundamental understanding and we look forward to wrapping it up today,” they further quote House Speaker Pelosi as saying, “from my standpoint, we’re apart.”
Incredibly, late Sunday, Speaker Pelosi announced she was not going to cooperate with the Senate, and instead will focus on her own proposal. Pelosi’s announcement is a stunning example of the pre-pandemic partisanship that has prevented the government from acting with the urgency this public health and economic crisis requires.
Our leaders are running in place and the American middle class is their treadmill.
It is time for our political leaders to elevate themselves above partisanship and recognize that in a post-pandemic world they are required to address the needs of the middle-class Americans who do the working, and paying, and living, and dying in this country. They keep it running day after day. We need to keep them running.
It is also time to reconcile the consequences of government actions that are shutting down economic activity with the impact those actions have on individual households. Some sort of temporary across-the-board shut down of “non-essential” business operations seems imminent. Without commenting on the wisdom of that decision or the scope of the policy, all political indications are that something is coming. People need cash to survive this centralized government intervention in economic activity.
Draconian actions produce commensurate results. Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, “He fears the public health measures that have shut down large swaths of the economy could cause their own health catastrophe, as lost jobs lead to poverty and hopelessness. Time and again, researchers have seen that suicide rates go up when the economy spirals down.”
No matter which side of the political continuum you call home, and no matter what you think the government should or shouldn’t do, they have been and will continue to do things. Those things are going to have a dire economic impact. The immediate challenge for every American is to survive physically and economically for the next 30 days.
Congress still will need to address other issues that are created by this pandemic. They are going to need to find out the best way to support privately-owned businesses in the country that do not have the financial resources of large corporations. Those companies are the backbone of America and employ the greatest number of our middle-class citizens. There will be other economic issues to address, as well, but we do not have to do everything at once.
We do, however, need to do this. America is its people. There are no businesses, schools, or governments without the people. Bringing stability to them must be the first order of business. As a general rule, I am not in favor of direct transfers of wealth. But this is an unprecedented time, and general rules do not apply. We have to address the one essential goal, stabilization of the American people to give them confidence that we will all come through this intact.
Since our elected leaders cannot seem to agree on what to do, let me suggest they come together and pass The Temporary Income Replacement Act. Perhaps this first step will lead them to come together for all of the next steps that are going to have to follow
Arrest Pelosi and Schumer...they are both traitors and turncoats...period!!! Wake up, Fellow Americans....these Democrats are killing innocent Americans and, working to destroy the entire nation itself!!! Wake up, Wake up, Wake up!!! Americans you must destroy the entire Democrat Party politically...or, you will be destroying yourselves, your lives and your futures...Wake up!!!
Its the DEMOCRATS in Congress that WANT YOU UNEMPLOYED and the country in a DEEP DEPRESSION!
CALL YOUR DEMOCRAT SENATORS!!!
Just a suggestion, get rid of every congresscritter above the age of 50, because they have been there more than two terms, and have no idea how things work in the world they left those years ago, once elected.
- Immediate freeze on all business payroll taxes.
- Expanded and expedited unemployment, including gig workers.
- NO direct payments to any individual or business.
- Pay all medical costs related to the Chinese Virus. Every penny.
That’s it. No Planned Parenthood bailout. No new Post Office in any GOP district.
What we need is Term limits, and they have to be enforced.
Scramble the order of the letters in the word “pandemic”, and you get “Dem Panic”.
Their grip on the tapestry grows tighter as they slip ever lower to the floor.
Here are stars, not speculation that the sky is falling.
Apparenty the death rate is declining. Even Fox News can dig up stats. Who knew? Death rate dropped from 4.06% to 1.84% in 7 days, and that was 8 days ago. Could be much lower now.
Even the reality challenged Brit Hume told some truth it seems:
In the fact-challenged world of the coronavirus COVID-19, there are still actual facts out there, and Fox News analyst hit a homer with a single post on Twitter.
“As the number of cases has expanded, the mortality rate has declined. It will likely decline even further if and when those without symptoms can be diagnosed and counted,” Hume tweeted.
He included a tweet from another Twitter user that laid out the death rate in the U.S. from COVID-19.
4.06% March 8 (22 deaths of 541 cases) 3.69% March 9 (26 of 704) 3.01% March 10 (30 of 994) 2.95% March 11 (38 of 1,295) 2.52% March 12 (42 of 1,695) 2.27% March 13 (49 of 2,247) 1.93% March 14 (57 of 2,954) 1.84% March 15 (68 of 3,680)...
4% death rate now below 2%. At this rate the number dead may be below or not much above the death rate from the flu last year of 80,000.
I disagree that everyone should get a check. There should be needs testing. Why the hell should any congress critter get a check? Why should any millionaire get a check? No, help the people who absolutely need the damn money because of a lost job! I receive SSI and Navy retirement pay. I don’t need the money. I have suffered no financial loss because I get my checks and I’m not vested in the financial market anymore. Don’t send me any money. Can’t the government EVER act with common sense?
“Why should any millionaire get a check?”
I thought someone from the White House (possibly Trump) said that the wealthy were excluded. But why the same amount for children? Originally, children were to get 1/2 the amount of an adult.
This is just another crisis to get rid of TRump!!
Oh, and I forgot....welfare junkies and illegals shouldn’t get a dime either... only people who actually work and contribute to our society.
I think the payouts might pertain to people making $75K or less, based on 2018 tax returns. We’re not expecting any check.
(458 deaths)/(35,070 cases) = 1.3% as of 7AM EST March 23, 2020
The rats are up to their same old games, they need to be under house arrest
83% of covid-19 deaths have occurred in Four Countries.....Iran, Spain, Italy, China
Moving forward keep the senate take back the house and lets get to business, make the changes we need and want
I want more details. I don’t like the sound of ‘everyone’ getting a check. People on welfare shouldn’t be getting anything extra, as this would simply amount to a bonus for them. And, certainly no checks for all the illegals out there, how do we keep them from getting this aid money? This should be relief for citizen taxpayers only.
I understand your concern.
Still, I think the writer’s point is that the money needs to go out NOW, not 2 months from now when the Washington Swamp finally decides who gets a check and who doesn’t.
Do you really believe Washington Bureaucrats can work any faster?
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