Post 17 - March 28, 2020
Day 17…
So, what’s the deal with this stimulus package? It is a $2.2 trillion coronavirus and relief bill called the CARES Act. (The Corona Virus Aid, Recover and Economic Securities Act - HR 748)
Here’s a little conflated background as I understand it (thank you to Heather Cox Richardson, a Professor of History at Boston College - check out her Facebook page for more in depth detail - I am paraphrasing her.). Skip over the next few paragraphs if this is too boring, but I think it’s important to have a basic grasp of what’s going on in Washington, so here goes.
All federal bills that appropriate funding have to be initiated by the House of Representatives. The first two bills that were passed did originate in the House but this latest one originated in the Senate and was written without any input from the Democrats because the Republicans thought that it would take too long to come to a bi-partisan agreement. Because funding bills have to originate in the House, the House created an initial “dummy” shell Bill that the Senate bill then replaced (the HR in the title refers to the House of Representatives).
When Democrats saw the Senate’s Bill, they wouldn’t support it because they thought it handed too much to corporations and not enough to ordinary people. The primary point of contention was a provision that allowed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sole discretion to disburse $500 billion in revenue to whichever corporation he felt should get it, and those disbursements would remain SECRET for six months with little to no oversight. To address this, the Senate Democrats then countered with their own bill - this bill was not at all intended to pass but, instead, to initiate discussions which is exactly what it did.
As a result, the Democrats got what they really wanted which was oversight over this $500 billion fund - an independent inspector general and an oversight board. The President lied to the public about what the Democrats had added to the bill - there was no “Green New Deal” and no windmills.
Nonetheless, the President signed the Bill, BUT he included a “signing statement”. These used to be innocuous statements of thanks and support but under GW Bush they started being a way for the President to challenge items in the Bill without deciding to veto the whole Bill. What the President said in THIS signing statement was that he would ignore the oversight provisions. Nancy Pelosi has said that she anticipated this move (remember that Trump is looking for some of that bailout money for his own companies) and that there are many levels of oversight included in the Bill to countermand this.
So, I guess we will see what develops. Keep your eyes on this $500 billion fund! The White House is going to spread a ton of misinformation about this over the next couple of weeks as the President tries to get money to his own floundering businesses and to those of his wealthy friends.
On the plus side, the President finally is now forcing GM to make ventilators under the Defense Production Act which they say they can do in 100 days.
That’s all well and good but projections put our peak need here in NYC in 20 days.
It’s hard not to become completely irate at our corrupt and venal federal government. Trump is actually denying states assistance whose Governors aren’t being “nice” to him. He reportedly recently said to Pence, “Don’t call the woman in Michigan.” Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer has said that shipments of medical supplies that were coming to her state were cancelled and are now going to the Federal government instead.
WTF?
It truly beggars belief.
We are at war.
Plain and simple, we should now all be working TOGETHER against a common enemy.
The virus.
States should not be competing with each other over ventilators and supplies and driving up the price.
The Federal government should be the force that is coordinating the response and distribution and instead, they are doing the exact opposite.
They are dividing us.
They are pitting states against states.
States with decent leadership are in far better shape than states with ineffective leaders. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, is an example of poor leadership. He has been extremely slow to respond and shut things down. I wonder how many people he killed by allowing the beaches to remain open for Spring Break.
We keep praising our Governor, Andrew Cuomo, but there is a reason for that.
He is on TV every day telling us what is going on.
The good, the bad and the ugly - he’s putting it out there.
He’s consulting experts and LISTENING to them.
He has a working knowledge of the virus and the obstacles, but he’s not pretending that he knows anything in depth. He has a TEAM working with him and THEY know.
The truth is more comforting - no matter how bleak - than lies.
He seems to be giving us the truth.
One thing that I have to say I do find very troubling is that the people who are sitting with him are completely monochromatic.
There are no people of color with him.
I think that he needs to change that immediately.
His message needs to go out to EVERYBODY.
If you look at that group and don’t see yourself represented there, there is a good chance that you are going to start to think that this doesn’t apply to you.
This applies to ALL of us.
And, like always, to do our part in this fight, we simply have to stay home.
While we are at home, we have to be smart about who we listen to.
When every single speech from the President requires massive fact-checking, we just need to stop listening to him.
We can we help small businesses.
How?
Use them.
When you shop at a large national chain, the money that you spend leaves your city or town and goes to wherever that company is headquartered.
If you shop at a local bodega or deli/supermarket, that money stays there.
Our Trader Joe’s has a line around the block waiting (at 6’ intervals) to get in. All of the money that we spend in there leaves the city and goes to Monrovia, CA where their headquarters are. When you shop at Walgreens, your money all goes to Deerfield, IL.
If you shop at the little local grocery store across the street, there are rarely lines. They have a lot of stock and, best of all, the money that you spend there, supports the local family who owns and runs the store.
Shop at your local Mom and Pop Pharmacy.
By the way, all of the hard-to-find items that we have scored over the last few days (hand sanitizers and wipes) have been from small local dollar stores and hardware stores.
I’m not saying don’t shop at Trader Joe’s or Walgreens at all, just don’t shop SOLEY at Trader Joe’s and Walgreens. They sometimes have things that nobody else does.
Just support our neighborhood stores, too.
We are doing this.
We have a long way to go, but we are getting there.
Stay the course.
Listen to your heart and your own innate common sense.
Fear and anxiety just creates a lot of noise around simple core truths and makes them difficult to see.
Bottom line is that these are just microscopic particles of protein that like company.
Don’t give it to them.
Wash your hands - several times a day for 20 seconds each time - it destroys the particles.
Washing your hands does exactly the same thing that sanitizer does so if you don’t have sanitizer, IT DOESN’T MATTER.
You don’t have wipes? Find some spray and some paper towels.
SAME THING.
Breathe and be safe.
Be kind.
Love.