The Real Reason Republicans Are Against Biden's COVID Relief Proposal

Yes, the Republicans say things about being concerned about the budget and that's why they're proposing a smaller and honestly weaker COVID relief plan but Robert Reich gets this correct.

The Real Reason the GOP Don’t Want Biden’s Plan? They Fear It Will Work

Biden’s success would put into sharp relief Trump and Republicans' utter failures on COVID and jobs

A bit from the article:

Ten Senate Republican have proposed a COVID relief bill of about $600 billion. That’s less than a third of Biden’s plan. They promise "bipartisan support" if he agrees.

Their proposal isn’t a compromise. It would be a total surrender. It trims direct payments and unemployment aid that Americans desperately need. Biden should reject it out of hand.

Republicans say America can’t afford Biden’s plan. “We just passed a program with over $900 billion in it,” groused Senator Mitt Romney.

Rubbish. We can’t afford not to. Millions of people are hurting.

Besides, with the economy in the doldrums it’s no time to worry about too much spending. The best way to reduce the debt as a share of the economy is to get the economy growing again.

Beyond COVID relief, Biden has other proposals waiting in the wings, such as repairing aging infrastructure and building a new energy-efficient one. These would make the economy grow even faster over the long term—further reducing the debt’s share.

There’s no chance that public spending will “crowd out” private investment. If you hadn’t noticed, borrowing is especially cheap right now. Money is sloshing around the world in search of borrowers.

It’s hard to take Republican concerns about debt seriously when just four years ago they had zero qualms about enacting one of the largest tax cuts in history, largely for big corporations and the super-wealthy.

If they really don’t want to add to the debt, they have another alternative: A tax on super-wealthy Americans...

The total wealth of America’s 660 billionaires has grown by a staggering $1.1 trillion since the start of the pandemic, a 40 percent increase. They alone could finance almost all of Biden’s COVID relief package and still be as rich as they were before the pandemic. So why not a temporary emergency COVID wealth tax?

Let’s be honest. The real reason Republicans don’t want Biden’s plan is they fear it will work.

This would be the Republican’s worst nightmare: All the anti-government claptrap they’ve been selling since Ronald Reagan will be revealed as nonsense.

Government isn’t the problem and never was. Bad government is the problem, and Americans have just had four years of it. Biden’s success would put into sharp relief Trump and Republicans’ utter failures on COVID and jobs.

If Biden gets his plans through, he and the Democrats would reap the political rewards in 2022 and beyond.Democrats might even capture the presidency and Congress for a generation. After FDR rescued America, the Republican Party went dark for two decades.

Further proof new President Joe Biden's plans and ideas are good and positive? 

Bolstering Reconciliation Case, Study Shows $15 Wage Would Boost Federal Budget By $65 Billion

Added to this, Joe Biden has only been President just shy of 2 weeks and his popularity is soaring, by any comparison, whether to the previous orange President or nearly any other.

Biden's Popularity Is Surging 

This is how Americans feel on our most pressing issue of the day, too.

Poll: 73 percent say Biden administration will do a good job handling coronavirus vaccine distribution

Joe Biden won by such a large margin in this election and he's so popular presently, Republicans are moving in 28 different states now, again, to make it even harder for Americans---you and I--to vote. 

Republicans Push to Make Voting Harder

The fewer people vote, the more likely they, Republicans, can get into government office and stay there. Wrap your head around that.

So don't think for a moment anyone in the Republican Party is concerned just now about keeping the national debt lower. Oh, no. They're concerned for the their own political party and for their own power, nation and people be damned, as we keep seeing from them over time, repeatedly.

Additional links to further Republican Party ugliness:

All 10 GOP Senators Behind Skimpy $600 Billion Covid Relief Offer Happily Voted for $740 Billion Military Budget

Meanwhile, we can do this.

'We Have Got to Act Now': As GOP Introduces Weak Relief Bill, Sanders Says Dems Already Have Enough Votes to Pass Stronger Package

I say again, why anyone, anyone from the middle or lower classes considers themselves a Republican and votes that way is beyond me. WAY beyond me.

Additional links:

Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes

Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts Helped Super-rich Pay Lower Rate

Trump Tax Cuts Have Failed To Deliver On GOP's Promises

Study: Trump Tax Cuts Failed to Help Anybody But the Wealthy

Trickle-Down Economics: Four Reasons Why It Just Doesn't Work

Robert B. Reich: Trickle-down economics doesn’t work

Trickle-down theory is a monstrous lie

We Must Make Black Lives Matter in America

Four examples. Following are just four very recent examples of what's gone on in America.  And for far, far too long.

--Tamir Rice was 12 years old. He had a toy gun. Within 3-1/2 seconds of the police officer arriving on scene, he had already shot and killed the boy.

--Breonna Taylor was at home. She was an EMT. It was around midnight. The police officers came crashing through her apartment door on a no knock warrant. They immediately shot and killed her. They had the wrong address.

To this day, from March to today, July 26, those officers haven't been arrested.  For anything.

--George Floyd was THOUGHT, only thought to have passed a counterfeit $20 bill. Eight minutes and 46 seconds after the officer began knee pressure on Mr. Floyd's neck/throat, he had killed him, Mr. Floyd. The officer, therefore, made himself judge, jury and executioner right there on the street.

--Auhmaud Arbery was jogging, out jogging, in his mother's neighborhood when two brothers, one an ex-police officer, thought he looked suspicious so they accosted him and within minutes shot him with a shotgun. Twice. Killing him.  Again, they made themselves judge, jury and executioner, no less, and in only a few minutes.

All 4 were Americans. American citizens.

Those are just 4 very recent situations, with their facts. 4, frankly, nearly insanely, of many here in the US both recent and going far back in our nation's history.

How could any of that be okay or right? How can any of that be okay here in our nation, in the United States of America?

We must make Black Lives Matter.

See for yourself:

A brief history of police officers killing black people

Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and stories of other black

George Floyd: Timeline of black deaths caused by police

"Say their names": The list of people injured or killed in officer ...

Search Results

Web results

Know their names: Black people killed by the police in the US

Going Forward---Something to Think About

More and more, I keep seeing first this person and then another hinting at, suggesting about if a crash, an economic crash, should occur, what with this rather relentless killing, international pandemic and the effects it's having on us and our economies and institutions. Some examples. This first I got from my brother.

The decline of the U.S. dollar could happen at ‘warp speed’ in the era of coronavirus, warns prominent economist

Pandemic Upends World's 2 Largest Economies

The economic devastation wrought by the pandemic could ultimately kill more people than the virus itself

Coronavirus could spark another Great Depression

Coronavirus pandemic's effect on global economy in 7 charts

The medical community seems convinced we're still on the "first round" of this coronavirus pandemic, not the 2nd wave and it just keeps hitting bigger and bigger numbers of Americans who contract it and then the numbers that die, too. We have more cases of coronavirus and more deaths in the nation, both, THAN ANY OTHER NATION ON THE PLANET. And those numbers keep growing.

Put that into perspective, too, folks. We have a little over 4% of the nation's population--a fraction of China's or India's, for a best comparison--yet we have, by far, the most cases of the coronavirus and the most deaths in this pandemic.

If a crash does, in fact, come, an economic crash---God and heavens forbid--and this man, Donald J.  Trump is still at the helm?

Seriously, God and heavens help us all.

Link:

There is some hope out there. It's not all bleak.  Not completely.

Why COVID-19 Won’t Trigger Another 

Great Depression

Be safe out there, y'all. Be and stay safe.

And keep up that hope.

Meanwhile, this broke this morning, minutes ago.

Texas pauses reopening as hospitals inundated with 'explosion' of COVID-19 cases

This Trumpian Republican Party

I caught an excellent article, thanks to a friend, over the weekend on this President and what has morphed into his political party:

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult

One of the challenges in analyzing modern American politics is accurately describing the Republican Party without seeming unserious and hyperbolic. Major publications are understandably in the habit of presenting both sides of the partisan divide as being inherently worthy of respect and equal consideration, both as a way of shielding themselves from accusations of bias and as a way of maintaining their own sense of journalistic integrity.

Unfortunately, the modern Republican Party’s abdication of seriousness, good faith and reality-based communications or policy-making has stretched even the most open-minded analyst’s capacity for forced balance. Donald Trump’s own inability to string together coherent or consistent thoughts has led to a bizarre normalization of his statements in the traditional media, as journalists unconsciously try to fit his rambling, spontaneous utterances into a conventional framework. This has come at the cost of Americans seeing the full truth of the crisis of leadership in the Oval Office for what it is. For instance, it was ironically salutary for the American public to witness Donald Trump’s bizarre pandemic press conferences where he oddly attacked reporters for asking innocuous questions and recommended researching bleach and sunlight injections, because they got to see Trump raw as he truly is, without the normalization filter. Republicans have long argued that the “mainstream media filter” gives them a bad shake, but the reality is the opposite: sure, it’s not as good as being boosted by Fox News’ overt propaganda, but it does them a greater service than letting the public see them unfiltered at all...

...Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that 

• a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; 
• that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; 
• that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; 
• that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; 
• that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; 
• that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. 

That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”}

I personally can't recommend the complete above article enough.

Meanwhile, this happened two days ago, Saturday.

Trump retweets a message calling Hillary Clinton a 'skank' and spreads sexist insults about other prominent female Democrats

On Saturday, President Donald Trump shared a series of sexist insults and personal gibes about prominent female Democrats.

Trump has a long record of aiming sexist insults at female critics.

Who does this?

What public person, let alone government representative, let alone 74 year old, let alone Congressional representative or, I don't know, what PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES talks like that?  What adult calls another, a woman, a "skank"?  Who does that??

This President is frightening but as that first article above shows, much of the Republican Party has gotten scary, honestly, no overstatement, scary.

Fortunately, there are a few, a very few Republicans out there warning people about him and this. People like Utah's Mitt Romeny, conservative writer George Will, uber-conservative Bill Kristol and others.  It's not enough but it's something.

Then there's the fact that this President has repeatedly tried to spread an untrue and extremely irresponsible murder conspiracy theory, of all things, about Joe Scarborough.

Trump uses Twitter to push 

murder conspiracy theory 

And this was yesterday at the Memorial Day activities. As this President and again, his political party would have it, it's "sleepy Joe" Biden we have to worry about, no one else. And yet...

Trump’s struggles to stand still didn’t go unnoticed during Memorial Day visit to Arlington

Oh sway can you see.

President Trump’s struggles to stand still during a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery lit up social media Monday, prompting users to recall past incidents in which the commander in chief, who turns 74 next month, battled to find a balance.

“Is the President having trouble standing up straight as the National Anthem begins at Arlington Cemetary (sic) or am I seeing things?” Joshua Potash from Queens asked on Twitter.

The Trump critic posted that video, along with another clearly showing the president swaying in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Between this President's ravings, his questionable health and his political party's going off a d eep end, it seems clear we don't lack for things we have to work on, let alone be concerned of.

Thanks, Republicans.

"Only the best people."
"So much winning."

Links:

Op-Ed: Let’s count the ways Donald Trump has gone where no president has gone before

Are White Working Class Folks Tiring of Trump's Act?
Trump Sabotaged America's Recovery Even Before COVID-19 Began

24 conspiracy theories Donald Trump has floated

6 months on, Trump hasn't completed his physical. The White House won't say why.

Editorial: If the pandemic-preparedness cupboard was bare, it was Trump's doing

Trumpian Firsts

Herewith, just a very brief list of just a few things for which this Republican Party President Donald Trump did first, most and/or best compared to all other Presidents:

First American President to simultaneously hold the record for

• Biggest stock market drop
• Highest national debt
• Most convicted members of his one administration
• Most turnovers in his administration, with people coming and going
• Most pandemic infections

And all in only the first four years of his term.

So much winning.

Link:

Op-Ed: Let’s count the ways Donald Trump has gone where no president has gone before

Shocking Information On Coronavirus Deaths in St. Louis

I just saw this article online from Newsweek.

ALL CORONAVIRUS DEATHS IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI HAVE BEEN AFRICAN AMERICANS

Honestly, that is shocking.

That's one heck of an indictment of our health care system and even, honestly, our society.

These are fellow Missourians and Americans. We can't allow this now but going forward.

More:

The Coronavirus Is a Wake-Up Call for Racial Inequality. It’s Time to Change the System

COVID-19 is disproportionately killing minorities. That’s not a coincidence

How Is Donald Trump Even Still President?

This is how bad it is. This is where we are now, presently.

We have a President who, in the middle of the worst pandemic of the last 100+ years, actually advised American citizens to--wait for it--inject disinfectants to fight the virus.

'It's irresponsible and it's dangerous': Experts rip Trump's idea of injecting disinfectant to treat COVID-19

"It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves," one doctor said.

The makers of these products has had to warn Americans about this.

In Wake of Trump Comments, Lysol Maker Warns Against Using Disinfectants to Treat Coronavirus

Under No Circumstance': Lysol Maker, Officials Reject Trump's Disinfectant Idea

And check it out. Even HIS OWN FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, had to clarify that this President's recommendations are a patently bad and wrong idea.

FDA warns against using Trump-touted drugs to treat coronavirus

Keep in mind, too, this isn't the first ignorant--stupid?--dangerous thing this President has advised we the American people on this pandemic.

Man Dead From Taking Chloroquine Product After Trump Touts Drug For Coronavirus

Arizona man dies, wife in critical condition after taking drug touted as virus treatment: "Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure"

The same President who was shown in a court of law to have taken funds from a charity, for God's sake, for his political campaign. He had to pay back 2 million dollars by that same court.

I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. America, how is this man even still President?

"Only the best people." "So much winning."

Thanks, Republicans. We have so, so much to thank you for now, with this deeply irresponsible, ignorant, self-serving, now dangerous buffoon.

The Not Just Unprecedented But Also Bizarre Presidency That Is Donald Trump's

Once again, Donald Trump, Donald John Trump, President Trump, breaking rules and precedent. Here's what he did this past Friday morning.

Trump's tweet on solid jobs report breaks protocol aimed at preventing investors from making early trades

A bit from the article:

For decades, federal officials have taken great care to prevent providing any early indications to investors about monthly jobs report data that can move markets.

On Friday, President Trump broke that longstanding protocol using his favorite communication tool — Twitter — triggering a jump in yields on the 10-year Treasury bond and an outcry from former White House officials.

Trump, who learned about the strong May jobs report Thursday night, tweeted Friday morning that he was “looking forward to seeing the employment numbers” scheduled to be released by the Labor Department about an hour later.

A top White House official emphasized that Trump didn’t reveal any of the numbers, but investors took it as a clear sign the numbers were good. And they weren’t disappointed.

In tweeting about the report when he did, Trump violated a longstanding prohibition against executive branch officials publicly commenting on the report before its official release or within an hour afterward.

“Except for members of the staff of the agency issuing the principal economic indicator who have been designated by the agency head to provide technical explanations of the data, employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time,” according to the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 3, adopted in 1985.

And then there’s him, again, as President, earning money while in the White House, smashing the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Trump's company earned $40M from Washington hotel in 2017, disclosure shows

Not done there, he added yet more to the fuel of his own fire:

Schiff: Trump deal with ZTE a ‘violation of the emoluments clause’

There are more examples of him--and his family--earning money because of his Presidency, too, but I'll move on.

There’s his using his own, unsecured cell phone.

How Trump’s Unsecured iPhones Threaten National Security — And His Own

So check out what's happening around the White House, since the world knows he uses an unsecured Android phone. This broke this past week.

Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say

And why wouldn’t there by that “sophisticated cellphone spying” near the White House? When you know the most powerful man in the world is using an unsecured Android phone, get a hotel room near the White House and see what you can find.

Then there's the tariffs on imports he wants to impose---and on our own allies, no less.

Trudeau on Trump tariffs: 

'I don't know' what he wants to accomplish

I tell you, folks, to repeat, this Presidency is, yes, bizarre, unprecedented and very likely, in more than one way, illegal.

Stay tuned.

And God--or somebody, something--help us.

Exactly How Bad Is This Republican President's and Congress' Plan for Spending?

After the Republican Party's Congress and President released their tax and spending plans, exactly how bad is it all?

Don't ask Democrats or the Left Wing or "libruls" for their opinion, oh no.

Let's go straight to the heart of the Right Wing:

Heritage Foundation: Republicans are 

“bankrupting the country” 

Yes sir. And it comes from this article:

Alarm bells are ringing on the federal debt

This is the author:

Thomas Binion is the director of Congressional and Executive Branch Relations at The Heritage Foundation.

For those who don't know---who, exactly, is the Heritage Foundation, you ask? Well, here you are:

The Heritage Foundation - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heritage_Foundation

The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies were taken from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership.

Here, then, is what Mr. Binion has to say about this latest spending boondoggle by this Republican Congress:

The Bipartisan Budget Act is 652 pages long. The bill increases spending by $386 billion over two years and nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years. It also suspends the debt ceiling until after the next election.

This is a massive and sweeping increase in federal spending. The increase in domestic spending is three times larger than even the increase requested by President Obama in his last budget.

Sure, those pesky Democrats insist this Republican tax plan shovels yet more money to the already-wealthy and corporations---their contributors---as well as taking money from programs that help the middle- and lower-classes (and it's factually true, by the way), but let's not rely on their input or opinion. Let's stick with Right Wingers and Republicans on this.

Even they think this is not just a bad plan but downright dangerous. 

Bankrupting, even.

But hey, Republicans are doing it so it must be okay?

Right?

Not done spending there, however. Mr. Trump also wants to have a parade, we can't forget that.

Trump's military parade could cost as much as $30 million

Link:

CBO: Senate tax plan would increase deficit 

by $1.4T over 10 years

Republicans? Really??

Think about this.

Locally, on the state level, and on the national level, what do Republican government representatives get us?

Let me give you some very recent examples. We have to look no farther than neighbor Kansas for some real beauties, to start.

In 2012, very Right Wing, "conservative" and Republican Governor Sam Brownback and his Republican Party statehouse members slashed taxes for the state for the already-wealthy and corporations. The results are now famous and disastrous.

The GOP Tried Trump-Style Tax Cuts 

in Kansas. What a Mess

Kansas' tax cuts are a spectacular failure

Kansas's ravaged economy a cautionary tale

Kansas taxpayer debt far outpaces 

surrounding states

Kansas Confronts Yet Another Budget Crisis

Kansas faces $74.5 million budget shortfall 

amid school funding fight

Plan to fix Kansas budget through school cuts 

implodes in state

Study: Kansas cuts K-12 education funding 

by fourth-most in nation

S&P drops Kansas credit rating, 

citing lack of cash reserves

S&P revises Kansas rating outlook 

to negative on budget pressures

I could post yet more but it would be overkill.

Then there's what the current Republican President and his Republican Party allies recently, infamously did in Congress with their very similar tax cuts for the, again, already-wealthy and corporations.

GOP tax bill slashes rates for corporations 

and wealthy

Tax bill: Ample tax cuts for business, 

wealthy in new GOP tax plan

Senate tax bill would cut taxes of wealthy and increase taxes on

 families earning less than $75,000 by 2027

And here is what this tax plan will do.

Why the GOP Tax Bill Will

 Make Wealth Inequality Worse

Why stop there? Why not also effect people's health insurance and health care?

CBO: Obamacare repeal bill would 

boost uninsured by 32 million

And this. Keep in mind, this is from the people who are supposed to be crazy about our national debt.

Under Dynamic Scoring, House Tax Bill 

Still Explodes the Debt

Senate Tax Bill Will Add $1.4467 Trillion 

to Deficit, CBO Says

The Republican Tax Plan Would Add 

$1.7 Trillion to Federal Deficits

1.4467 trillion, 1.7 trillion.  Let's not quibble.

So that's what they do to us, we citizens, by state and nationally. Now, this is who they are personally.

Trump Gets Caught Saying "Grab Her by the Pussy"

WSJ: Trump lawyer arranged 

porn star payment for her silence

Those are just two of the many I could post. That's enough. It shows who and what he is.

Then there are these guys, these also Republicans.

Remember Mr. "Wide Stance", back in 2007? Senator Larry Craig?

Sen. Craig arrested in "lewd conduct incident" 

at airport restroom

More recently, there's this guy--

Video shows Oklahoma senator caught 

with teen boy in hotel

That wasn't bad enough, the guy not only did this but was into sex trafficking, to boot.

Oklahoma Republican pleads guilty 

to child sex trafficking

Oklahoma Lawmaker Arrested 

on Child Prostitution Charges

Then there's this one, from Ohio.

Anti-LGBT politician resigns 

after being 'caught having sex with man

Now, lately, recently, here on the Missouri, state level, we just had this little revelation from our new gonzo Governor Greitens.

Blackmail alleged as Governor Greitens 

admits to extramarital affair

I love this headline, true as it is.

'Family Values' GOP Missouri Governor 

Cheated On Wife

Not only did he have an affair, which he admitted to, he's accused of trying to blackmail her--with pictures, I understand--to keep her quiet.

Wow.

That is one heckuva list, folks.  And that's only a portion of what they do and who they show they are and repeatedly.

So between what they do to us all and who they seem to repeatedly show themselves to be, I have to ask America....

Why do we elect these people?

The Trump and Republican Party Tax Plan and Promises?

Remember, just recently, very recently, when this President Trump and his Republican Party pals were making promises about their tax overhaul plans and what it would do for America, for you and me? Remember that?  I surely do.

Trump Promises A Tax Cut 

For The Middle Class

Trump plan promises huge tax cuts

First there was all that. Then reality hit. The actual plan started to take shape and be released. We knew this was going to happen, didn't we? Really?

Promise the moon, deliver tax cuts 

for the wealthy

Trump and GOP Plan Tax Cuts for the Rich, 

Corporations

Then this hit.

Can't guarantee tax cut 

for entire middle class: Mnuchin

Okay, now fast forward to this week, just 3 days ago. Now they're coming clean on it, after all.

Cohn 'Can't Guarantee Anything' 

On Potential Middle Class Tax Hike

Trump adviser 'can't guarantee' taxes 

won't go up for middle class

Team Trump can't 'guarantee' middle class 

won't face tax increase

So it went from promising the sun, moon and stars in benefits to the middle class to "well, we'll give tax cuts to the already-wealthy and corporations" to "we can't promise all in the middle class will get a tax cut" to, finally, "We can't say the middle class won't get a tax HIKE."

Screw you, America.

I say again, anyone but the wealthy--and stupid--who voted Republican again last year, in November, and for this greedy, self-indulgent, narcissist, petulant, emotional Trump should get schooling.