Free Republic

Regal Cinemas announced recently that it will temporarily close all 536 of its U.S. locations as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and continues to keep customers away. This move will affect approximately 40,000 employees across the country. And yet, nobody in Congress is talking about a bailout for Regal. Now compare that with the airline industry. The airlines received a $50 billion bailout in April of this year, with $25 billion in subsidized loans and $25 billion meant to keep most airline workers employed until the end of September. As predicted, since consumers weren't ready to fly yet, this taxpayer-funded...

As the saying goes, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." This advice applies to the hole Congress leapt into by bailing out the airline industry back in March through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. Now these companies want even more taxpayer money. The federal government should refuse another bailout. Like many industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines have lost a lot of revenue. But unlike other industries, the coronavirus relief bill authorized up to $32 billion for payroll support through Sept. 30, for roughly six months. Basically, the way it worked is that...

One top CATO economist is letting The Wall Street Journal have it for pushing more federal bailouts for states and using liberal spin to justify it. CATO Director of Tax Policy Studies Chris Edwards slammed The Journal for pushing “a biased news story regarding state budgets” in a piece headlined “Error and Spin in Wall Street Journal Budget Article.” The Journal’s story, headlined “Coronavirus-Hit State Budgets Create a Drag on U.S. Recovery,” reflects “only Keynesian thinking, exaggerates the plight of governments, and only quotes analysts in favor of more federal bailouts,” according to Edwards.

Most people agree that politics is a dirty game and that political powers will inevitably be used to further the agenda of officeholders and their cronies. That said, despite being immersed in the current thinking regarding UBI for three years now, I have seen precious little worrying as to what the government — or a future government — might actually do once it has seized control over everyone’s purse strings.

President Trump's effort to break the Congressional deadlock on the next iteration of coronavirus relief by threatening to issue an Executive Order has Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) incensed. "His insistence that the coronavirus relief bill be focused on stimulating the economy after it was shut down to slow the spread of the contagion is too narrow," he said. "We want to include bailouts for states that have crippled their economies with reckless spending and high taxes. There are hundreds of thousands of government employees in my state who could face layoffs, pay cuts, or deferred pensions if federal...

Just when it seemed as though America may be turning the corner after months of lockdown… just when it seemed as though we were on a path to reopening and gradually returning to normalcy… just when the prospects of panic-induced social unrest seemed to be behind us… …America’s cities erupted into flames. Antifa and BLM-organized rioting, looting, violence, and mayhem have pushed cities across the country into pandemonium. Even if the insurrections are soon quelled – as President Donald Trump promised to do in a speech in front of the White House on Monday – the consequences won’t soon go...

At a time when huge spending bills marked “coronavirus relief” are easily passing Congress with little scrutiny, poorly run states are asking unscrupulous members of Congress to slip in taxpayer bailouts to rescue them from years of their own fiscal mismanagement. In response, the House of Representatives recently passed a coronavirus relief bill that includes a half trillion dollars (trillion with a “t”) in unrestricted funds to bail out state governments for years of reckless expenditures entirely unrelated to the pandemic. I have the same reaction to these proposals that I had when I worked in government and people were...

People are becoming outraged upon discovering the types of businesses and organizations that are receiving COVID-19 bailouts through the CARES Act and subsequent legislation. Left-leaning media outlets are receiving millions of dollars. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington was given $25 million. Elite universities like Harvard got the bailout money. After public outcry, Harvard, Stanford and a few of the other universities returned the money. Even the Los Angeles Lakers received millions, but they also returned it. Planned Parenthood affiliates improperly received $80 million and now the government wants it back. There’s another category of businesses receiving...

Red States Can't Let Blue Ones Go Down Without Sinking Themselves. Republicans may not want to bail out blue states, but they can’t afford to let them go under. Nicole Gelinas Published May. 16, 2020 5:35AM ET A long-simmering uneasiness between densely populated Democratic states and more sprawling Republican states has turned into open contempt, with national Republicans refusing more aid for cash-strapped states, and local and state Democrats seeing anything less than 100 percent funding as a betrayal. As New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Illinois, in particular, struggle with the economic consequences of locking down their states to...

Any tax-funded bailouts for higher ed need to be contingent upon urgent structural reforms, and a new paper from the National Association of Scholars provides the blueprint. Should universities receive taxpayer-funded bailouts? The answer depends on who you ask. According to Universities U.K., the lobby group for British universities, the answer is an unequivocal yes, even when the suggestion has caused some dithering and calls for a further probe into the Conservative-led government.The Russell Group Universities, the British version of the American Ivies, will be the hardest hit due to the latest crisis, according to one study. In the United...

WASHINGTON — States left cash-strapped by the coronavirus crisis shouldn’t count on federal bailouts — especially those run by Democrats, President Trump told The Post on Monday. During a sit-down in the Oval Office, Trump echoed recent remarks by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who last month refused to open federal coffers for “blue state” governments — including New York’s — that have been hit hard by the pandemic. “I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I don’t think they’re inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague,”...

In the wake of the spread of communist China’s coronavirus and the multi-trillion-dollar bailouts that have stemmed from it, let us as Americans be absolutely clear that fiscally responsible conservative states should not be forced to bailout broke Democratic states. Doing so would not only be morally wrong, it would be akin to highway robbery. Americans are undeniably compassionate and generous, especially in the wake of emergencies. The September 11th attacks and Hurricane Katrina, among countless other examples, serve as proof positive of this uniquely American spirit. Sadly, during times of crisis, we also hear of unscrupulous scam artists who...

“Never let a crisis go to waste.” Those now infamous words ring as true, maybe truer, today than ever before and the current crisis is no exception. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Americans are witnessing a new epidemic emerge—an epidemic of middle-class theft. Politicians in states that have been fiscally irresponsible for decades, amassing massive levels of debt and unfunded liabilities are coming hat in hand to the federal government—to you, the middle-class taxpayer—in an attempt to exploit our current health crisis to solve their financial mismanagement. Such exploitation rightfully begs the question: why should the taxpayers of...

Bloated universities should reform or perish. One can only hope British conservatives can show the same resolve as their American counterparts in blocking any bailouts Emily Cousens, a gender studies teacher at the University of Oxford and London School of Economics, is in despair that Oxford University will start a vaccine trial. In an article for Huffington Post titled “I Teach At Oxford, But I Don’t Want It To Win The Coronavirus Vaccine Race,” she writes that she is worried this scientific research would justify stereotypes, such as that “China, once again, has unleashed a threat to civilisation. But the...

Liberal New York Times economist Paul Krugman needed to dip into the graveyard of famous newspaper headlines to spit childish hyperbole at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Ironic that the guy who wrote the Keynesian book “Arguing with Zombies: Economic, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future,” would attempt to revive a zombie headline from roughly 45 years ago to continue proving his lefty bias. Krugman went #PeakWoke at McConnell’s suggestion that states should file for bankruptcy. Krugman’s piece headlined, “McConnell to Every State: Drop Dead,” is a play on an old 1970s New York Daily News headline...

A proposal by two senators to send $500 billion to state governments, due to the coronavirus, would be a horrible incentive. It would encourage governors to keep their economies closed despite their losses in tax revenues from the lack of business activity. Some Republican-led states have courageously reopened or remained open for business, and their money should not be taken and sent to mostly Democrat-controlled states who ordered people to stop working. States should have an incentive to reopen, as the Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia is doing, rather than receiving bailouts to remain closed. Yet Senators Bob Menendez...

There are reasons major companies got massive loans from the Senate's 'small business' bailout while thousands of small businesses that applied immediately were told there was no money left. There are reasons major companies got massive loans from the Senate’s “small business” bailout while thousands of small businesses that applied the first day funds were available were told there was no money left. Who is to blame, however, is more complicated.Imagine bankers who won’t deliver you taxpayer assistance unless you already owe them money. Imagine bankers who will put you at the back of the line so that franchises worth...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to furlough thousands of city workers for 26 days out of the next fiscal year as one of several measures to help balance the budget amid the COVID-19 pandemic during his State of the City address on Sunday evening. The furloughs will affect all civilian employees and will be equivalent to a 10% reduction in pay and will take effect July 1, the mayor said. A hiring freeze already put in place will remain in effect, as well. “I do not take that step lightly. I know every day we’re down even one...

The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced a bevy of new moves aimed at getting another $2.3 billion of financing into businesses and revenue-pinched governments. Among the Fed's measures were details regarding its Main Street business lending program and several other initiatives it is undertaking to backstop the reeling U.S. economy. The central bank also provided more detail on its market interventions, including plans to buy corporate bonds both at an investment-grade level as well as high-yield, or junk, bonds. Under provisions outlined for the first time, the loans would be geared toward businesses with up to 10,000 employees and less...

The details are out of Treasury now, and it looks like it isn't going to work for a large number of small business owners after all. Remember the deal the president signed to save America’s small businesses from ruin during the government’s coronavirus shutdown? The one hammered out by the Senate and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin over weeks of tense negotiation while Americans worriedly watched, hoping good news might come before a depression does? The details are out of Treasury now, and it looks like it isn’t going to work for a large number of small business owners...