March 28, 2020
After almost a week of delay, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act- the Cares Act passed through Congress and was signed by President Trump on Friday.
Unfortunately, while the United States’ economy is collapsing, and Americans are facing economic ruin, Democrats saw this relief bill as a political opportunity. Rather than assemble a bill as quickly as possible to address urgent needs, everyone should remember that Democrats attempted to leverage their power to fulfill their radical agenda.
Last week 200 members of the House Democratic Caucus were on a conference call discussing what they wanted in the bill. According to a source on the call, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told his colleagues,
“This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”
Instead of focusing only on the emergency besetting our country the Democratic House version of the bill was filled with a progressive wish-list. A sample of which included – a $15 minimum wage, permanent paid leave, gender pay equity provisions, diversity on corporate boards, emission off-set requirements, early voting requirements, collective bargaining powers for unions, the cancellation of all U.S. Postal Service debt, $9.5 billion to colleges and universities, and $100 million to juvenile justice programs. What do any of these mandates and proposals have to do with the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging our country?
It was also discovered by several Republican senators that the enhanced unemployment benefits, (an extra $600 per week for the next four months), in the bill would provide larger checks to many unemployed workers than what they received in wages. Yes- most Democrats found no problem with paying people more not to work than when they were working.
Incredibly, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor excoriating Republicans for wanting to cap benefits at 100% of former earnings. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, echoing Sanders sentiment, called Republicans, “cruel”.
Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out that, “You’re literally incentivizing taking people out of the workforce at a time when we need critical infrastructure supplied with workers.” He and other Republican senators also logically asserted that encouraging workers not to work for four months will hurt small businesses. Despite the senators’ objections, this nonsensical provision remained in the final version of the bill.
Unfortunately, Democrats held the leverage. Everyone knows that this is a make or break- time in Trump’s presidency. The faster the United States bounces back economically the greater the likelihood that President Trump wins re-election. This fact no doubt did not escape Democratic lawmakers who felt empowered to fill the bill with their Green New Deal, identity politics, and social justice agenda. It did not matter to Democrats that these actions delayed emergency relief to Americans.
Although Republicans were successful in trimming the bill, it is shamefully still filled with significant spending with no bearing on the current crisis. Democrats played their cards right. They knew that Republicans would be forced to agree to a bill, that under more normal circumstances, would have been unacceptable.
Speaker Pelosi’s claim that everything in the bill was “all about the Coronavirus. It’s not about anything else. It’s about the Coronavirus”, is nothing short of a lie.
There is no explaining how $350 million for “Migration and Refugee Assistance” has anything to do with helping Americans, and the pandemic devastating our country. Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted in defense of this tremendous outlay that, “immigrants and refugees are Americans…”. Rep.Matt Gaetz countered that “Much of this money will be spent on illegal immigrants in the United Sates, and foreign migrants around the world.” This provision remained in the final version of the bill. As did $258 million for “International Disaster Assistance”.
New York Democratic-Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even fought to extend unemployment benefits and the $1200 cash payment to non-Americans residing in the United States. Thankfully, this did not make it into the bill signed by the President.
Incredibly, while Americans are losing their jobs and life-savings, small businesses are collapsing, and American hospitals are facing dangerous shortages, Democrats delayed emergency relief to fight for non-Americans.
Inexplicably, the final bill also includes significant funding for numerous institutions such as – $75 million for Public Broadcasting, $150 million for the National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities, $300 million for Native American programs, and $50 million for the Institute of Museums and Libraries.
Democrats also took full advantage of this opportunity to indefinitely expand the size of the welfare state. Some of what the bill grants the poor include, an additional $12 billion for housing, $3.5 billion for child care, $900 million for heating assistance, and an additional $25 million in food stamp assistance. Unfortunately, there is no stipulation in the bill that these increases are only for the duration of the pandemic. Consequently, they will now be added to the baseline, increasing the size of these programs indefinitely.
The Democrat party has moved so far to the left, that even during a national emergency they could not set aside their political agenda, and focus solely on the urgent needs of Americans. Every American needs to remember this in November.
