- Even the midst of a global pandemic when millions of Americans are losing their jobs every week, the GOP is writing rescue bills to reflect their view that government should only help the "deserving."
- Who deserves help? Business. Who does not? Working people, poor people, other institutions.
- Right now Washington is fighting over whether or not a bill sending financial help to small businesses should also send help to hospitals and state governments fighting coronavirus on the front lines. Democrats want more aid for more people. Republicans want to limit it.
- This shouldn't be an argument. States give money to the unemployed and hospitals need this money badly. Republicans need to put their crusade aside and focus on helping us out of this crisis.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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If America is going to get through the coronavirus with its society and economy intact, Republicans are going to have to give up on their crusade to keep government small and budgets austere.
As a country we have more to lose if we under-spend during this crisis than we do if we overspend. If we under-spend, the deluge of missed rent, mortgage, auto, and credit card payments will stack up and do lasting damage to our economy and people's livelihoods. It's why we need more money for more people faster.
But the GOP is still designing legislation with its ideological goal of limiting the role of government to the support of enterprise squarely in mind. This week they've proposed adding another $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan program for small businesses. This is great, the problem is they don't think anyone else should get emergency funds right now.
Democrats want to tack billions in funding to hospitals and state governments - in other words, to the people on the frontlines of this crisis - onto the GOP bill. But Republicans don't want to do that. They want money to go to business owners and only to business owners.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the rest of the country - yes, including the hospitals - simply isn't in as desperate a need. How anyone could say that in the midst of this particular crisis is baffling, unless you understand that the GOP inherently thinks some people are worthy of government aid (corporations, business owners) and some people are not (workers, poor people).
The haves and the deserve-nots
The GOP rarely practices the sober economics it preaches (Donald Trump blew open the federal deficit during the strong economy of the past few years, for example) and when it does practice it, the effort largely fails (See: Kansas under Governor Sam Brownback). But to some Republicans this loose verbal commitment to fiscal austerity is a proud tradition. Even if it's sincere, though, there's no place for it during a pandemic - not when 6.6 million people are filing for unemployment in a single week.
It is absurd to only replenish the funds of one program when it's so clear that money is needed everywhere, and that we need to use all the mechanisms at our disposal to distribute funds.
That means helping the states. This week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would be adding another $600 per week to unemployment benefits until July 31. In a press conference, he wryly added that the federal government said it would pay him back - some of that now-famous Cuomo humor. His lack of confidence was palpable.
It's hard to blame him. Based on the way the conversation about how to rescue the economy is going on the GOP-side, it's clear that the fiscal hawks are getting tired of spending money on Americans who (to them) may or may not deserve it.
Recall that in the first coronavirus aid bill Republicans drafted last month they were ready to give the poorest Americans only $600 in aid money to ride this out, compared to the $1,200 that people who had higher incomes were set to receive. Their reasoning was that poor Americans don't pay income tax, so they should suffer more during a global calamity. Ultimately they relented to Democratic pressure and upped the checks to lower-income people to that $1,200.
Now the White House is throwing around the idea of creating a task force to deal with the economic impact of coronavirus, and so the right-wing think tank hacks and Washington swamp-things are coming out of the woodwork with their opinions.
Take, for example, Arthur Laffer, the guy who drew the "Laffer curve" which is supposed to show that if the government cuts taxes, instead of growing deficits the economy will grow so quickly that the government will end up taking in more revenue. This theory has never worked. Laffer is just another man who sold Americans the idea that they could get something for nothing.
On Wednesday Laffer told Reuters the way to fix the coronavirus economy is to cut taxes for businesses, while raising them for non-profits and other institutions. This is a horrible way to do things in a crisis when non-profits provide a safety net for some Americans.
Even after quarantine the economy will still need help. Until we have a vaccine, commerce will be slower. People's habits will be different. They'll be too afraid to go out and spend money they way they did before. Sporting events, concerts, anything with large crowds will still be a no-no.
So a task force for the economy is a good idea, but ultimately it's all about execution. And the Trump administration's execution has been objectively abysmal throughout this crisis.
Remember when Pence announced we would soon all be able to drive up to a Walmart and get tested for coronavirus a few weeks ago? Well, it seems like the administration just gave up on that whole thing. The federal government will end funding for the program on Friday and turn it over to states to fend for themselves.
This is not how experts say you get to a place where experts say you can open the economy. We need testing to make people feel safe, it's the only we'll get people to behave in any normal way. As a country, we can't afford to skimp on any part of this.
It is not in the GOP's ideological interest to just spray money around to people regardless of how they "contribute" to the economy. But it's going to have to let go of that. It's putting the economy in even more danger.
And as long as Republicans continue to write ideologically driven relief bills, we will continue to have these asinine arguments about whether or not we need to take care of all of the American people in a disaster. It makes you wonder when Republicans think it's appropriate to take care of Americans at all.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).