Posted on 03/24/2020 4:39:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
This is not an emergency virus bill. It is a Democratic election wish list, at a time hundreds are dying, thousands are losing their businesses, and millions are out of work in the United States.
The weekend began with a bipartisan plan. People were hopeful. Outside of Washington, business owners told The Federalist they finally saw light in all the darkness. They thought they’d be able to hire their employees back again. These are employees who have families, mortgages, and lives, people who have never asked for public assistance in their lives and never thought they’d have to.
The mood in Washington was optimistic as well. “We’re having good bipartisan agreements,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN Saturday, predicting a Monday passage of their plan. “The initial bill Leader [Mitch] McConnell put in didn’t have any Democratic input and we were worried that we just try to put it on the floor and not consult Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi because the House still has to pass this, but actually, to my delight and surprise, there has been a great deal of bipartisan cooperation thus far.”
On Sunday, Schumer met four times with Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin to continue negotiations.
And then Pelosi came back to town from her week-long vacation and announced the rare, rare bipartisan cooperation the country had seen in the Senate would end with her — and election politics would begin.
“Oh, I don’t know about Monday but we are still talking,” she said Sunday evening. “It’s on the Senate side now because that’s their deadline for a vote but we’ll be introducing our own bill and hopefully it’ll be compatible with that they discussed on the Senate.”
It was difficult to guess how she’d do this with the House in recess, but on Monday her office miraculously introduced a 1,400-page bill. Miraculous, until it became clear she’d simply unloaded the Democratic Party’s election platform into a bill intended to save Americans from bankruptcy and death in the face of a global pandemic.
The list of unrelated provisions is truly incredible. Pelosi’s emergency virus bill includes “collective bargaining… for federal workers,” a federal “study on climate mitigation efforts,” tax credits for wind and solar energy, and demands that the airlines involved buy carbon credits “to fully offset [their] annual carbon emissions.” It includes “same day [voter] registration,” national early voting and “grants for conducting” election audits.
Pelosi’s emergency virus bill legislates “funding standards for community newspaper” retirement plans, cancels $10,000 off peoples’ college debts, and forces a $15 minimum wage and permanent paid leave on aid recipients.
Pelosi’s emergency virus bill cancels the Post Office’s considerable debt to taxpayers and grants it “additional borrowing authority.” It gives Washington oversight of the “corporate board diversity” for the companies involved, mandates “a comparison of pay amongst racial and ethnic minorities… as compared to their white counterparts and comparison of pay between men and women,” orders the companies to start “diversity and inclusion offices” and give those offices “officials and budget dedicated to diversity,” and it establishes a program “to expand the use of minority banks and minority credit unions.”
This, it is clear, is not an emergency virus bill. It is a Democratic election wish list, politically poisoned at a time when hundreds are dying, thousands are losing their businesses, and millions are out of work in the United States.
“This,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn told Democrats Thursday, “is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”
It’s truly an incredible political act by the speaker, and the entire Democratic Senate fell in step behind her. By Monday afternoon, while Republican after Republican took the floor to speak on the bill, most Democrats were not even in the chamber.
“I thought we were doing great work,” Sen. Jim Inhofe lamented to a half-empty chamber. “Everything was great until last night.”
Everything had been great for Pelosi and the Democrats’ political fortunes as well. Early in the crisis, the speaker took a lead role, passing a Democratic wish list with the first round of emergency aid. Republicans in the House and Senate passed her bill despite its severe problems and near-complete lack of compromise.
McConnell was absent from early negotiations, providing zero cover while Mnuchin, a former Democrat with a bipartisan reputation as a terrible negotiator, surrendered on the president’s asks. The president himself fluctuated between defensive and tired, giving an Oval Office address that was so poorly received he rebooted his communication strategy. Today, McConnell and Republicans are at the forefront, the president’s handling of the crisis is popular across the country, and even Pelosi’s allies in the corporate media are struggling to explain her actions.
The New York Times changed their Sunday headline three times, starting correctly with “Democrats Block Action On $1.8 Trillion Stimulus,” then shifting the truth to “Democrats Block Action On Stimulus Plan, Seeking Worker Protections,” and finally editing the headline to pure farce with “Partisan Divide Threatens Deal On Rescue Bill.”
“Take us inside the politics here,” MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle asked after the speaker’s Monday speech quoting the pope to justify her actions. “How about this: What was the point of that?”
“Well,” correspondent Garrett Haake replied, “this is an opportunity for Democrats to show what their priorities are in this crisis.”
Indeed. And Americans are unlikely to be thrilled with those priorities while our economy careens toward devastation.
“Today, 102 Americans died while the Democrats blocked consideration of this bill,” Sen. Ted Cruz yelled from the floor of the Senate in a fiery response. “One Texan died while this chamber decided not to show up for work and do their job!”
“What the hell do the emissions standards on airplanes have to do with thousands of people dying and millions of people out of work in the coronavirus epidemic!?”
“What in the hell does a windmill have to do with this crisis, other than there are some Democratic lobbyists getting fat and rich and they’re willing to extort a crisis for a political agenda!?”
“One of the reasons the Democrats think they will get away with this,” Cruz closed, “is they expect the media to be utterly complict.” The corporate media is doing its best.
“For the moment,” Schumer had told CNN just 36 hours earlier, “we’re just trying to work together for the good of the country.”
The moment was brief, their miscalculation tremendous, and the political impact could — and should — be lasting.
We certainly are all in an uproar. This is for good reason. However McConnell’s fake outrage from the senate floor will go nowhere. All of the mainstream media Outlets are already counting the things in the bill as forward-thinking. Too many idiots on the left get their fake news from CNN and MSNBC. Where does that leave telling the rest of the country while they are listening what is actually in the bill? It doesn’t. President Trump need to read the list from his presser today and he needs to wear brass knuckles and call them out by name and talk about what things that Pelosi and Schumer want and the Democrats that are delaying our checks. That’s how you win this. Otherwise the Republicans will cave in. Why will they came in? Because they make more money out of being in the loser column and getting paid off selling a salad then they do if they actually do the work of winning.
I think they are trying to force President Trump into vetoing this bill.
I really do. There is no other explanation for this.
Why do you think it’s a fake outrage?
Mitch BETTER NOT GIVE IN!!!
Because McConnell is loyal to China let’s not forget that. How do we always end up with no-nad majority leaders who sell their party down the river and give the opposing party their wish list, a win. Ryan, McConnell, Boehner, etc.
Just tired of all the fake party we are for you-working hard for you, we got your back blah blah
Trump Derangement Syndrome knows NO limits. Nancy Pelosi would die and go to Hell before she would give Donald Trump ANY credit for effective governance, and most certainly would try her utmost to thwart any beneficial acts by Team Trump.
But perhaps she has already made her deal with the Devil.
Show me in the past other than getting to the judges in place where McConnell has actually done anything for the country he and his wife Elaine Chao have sold us out more times than you can shake a stick at. I do not trust him one bit... McConnell plays the loser party role very well and has eaten at the trough with the other pigs for years upon years. The only reason he is looked at as supporting President Trump now cuz somehow President Trump probably pushed him and gave him enough positive Strokes to make him want to do it. Yeah his outrage is fake. Show me where he wouldn’t want those things that are in the bill.
Because McConnell is loyal to China let’s not forget that. How do we always end up with no-nad majority leaders who sell their party down the river and give the opposing party their wish list, a win. Ryan, McConnell, Boehner, etc.
Just tired of all the fake party we are for you-working hard for you, we got your back blah blah
...
You nailed it I don’t need to add a single word.
The old hag needs her withered old ass kicked down the Capitol steps.
Off with her head
She forfieted her right to live
You’re kidding right? The article says MCConnell was mostly absent in negotiations with Schumer and Mnuchin. Because McConnell won’t change Senate rules to allow sick Senators to vote remote. Because he won’t have a news press and read the additions from the Dems that stopped people from getting their checks(what he should say). Instead he will allow this to go through and let the President take the blame. OUR PARTY ALWAYS SCREWS OUR PARTY PRESIDENT.
It makes no sense for McConnell to not change the rules in a national emergency. And because of that- he is a traitor.
IF THIS PASSES, I will not vote in November because it won’t matter as DEMS ADDITIONS for all the voting changes will ensure ballot harvesting in every state and Trump will lose anyways
This seems to be a classic case of Dems fiddle while America burns.
If we must have a revolution, let it begin with taking thacapitol and standing the speaker against the wall
Just so dis-heartened. It is so evident with McConnell not changing the Senate rules that he wants to put the blame on the President and force him to either swallow the crap in the bill or veto it. Come November, he can say, not my fault President could have veto’d it.
Why should we continue vote? THAT insertion of ballot harvesting for all states will be suicide for our President and our party.
You mention the judges. That almost trumps everything else you say about him the way the judiciary works these days.
Way to go......desert America and blame it on Mitch. You have joined the enemy.Yoy have become the problem
That is an excellent point.
Absolute drivel. You have joined the enemies and have become America’s problem
There is no limit to the shame that must be heaped upon you
That’s the main reason Trump is so disruptive.
He is messing up ALL of these hack lifer dog politician’s bu$ine$$ as usual.
Just like Reagan did toward the end of the last Century.
Another indicator that we are being played,and the one thing that will actually be our demise, is our massive debt.
But that must not be hardly worth mentioning..since no one hardly seems to mention it ..must not be very important.
But let’s keep on spending like there is no tomorrow!
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