Friday, December 18, 2020

Something to Know - 18 December


The most immediate need for government action rests in the current talks to get a stimulus bill out of Congress for assistance to those millions who are on the verge of collapse.   For fear of damage that a lack of a proper response by the Republicans, Mitch McConnell is trying to stitch together a bill, while knowing that if they fall short, it may hurt them in the Senate runoffs in Georgia.  Democrats are urged to accept Mitch's token response, while I am slowly coming to feel that Progressives should push for a bigger deal, and push the Republicans into a corner that they will have to capitulate.   I urge the Democrats to push forward at this time.   In the meantime, we are being told about the severity and extent of this Russian-generated intrusion into the depths of our supposedly secure national defense systems.   Trump is silent, and I am convinced that his refusal on this issue, and many others, that have nailed the Russians , that Trump is beholden to Putin for something or things that will be revealed when investigations into the trail of money from Russia, through Deutsche Bank, to the Trump Organization are fully known.  Trump is rumored to be holding a Christmas gift list of pardons to be strewn out to some pretty shady characters.  We are all counting the days until he is gone, and that he may have to be physically removed.  HCR brings you up to speed on the swamp gas, and Paul Krugman supports my attitude that we should leverage the Mitch into accepting a bigger and better outcome that will benefit so many, and pour a great amount of money into our system that will stimulate a broader reach of the economy, than the GOP's usual plan of supply-side economics of giving the wealthy and the corporate nation most of the support.

Return of the Phony Deficit Hawks

Suddenly, Republicans are pretending to care about debt.


Paul Krugman

Opinion Columnist

  • Dec. 17, 2020
It looks as if Congress will soon pass a much-needed economic relief (not stimulus) bill — something that will help distressed Americans get through the next few months, while we wait for widespread vaccination to set the stage for economic recovery. That's good news, because something is better than nothing, even though what we know about the legislation says that it's going to be deeply flawed.

But the way this debate has been playing out is ominous for the future. Even some of the good guys seem a bit confused about what they're trying to do. And the bad guys — Mitch McConnell and company — are clearly doing some of the right things only under political duress, while giving every indication that they'll systematically undermine the economy once President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

About good guys getting it wrong: Economic relief legislation is largely about providing individuals and families with a financial lifeline during the pandemic. But who should get that lifeline? Should it go to a majority of the population, like those $1,200 checks sent out in the spring? Or should the focus be on enhanced unemployment benefits for the millions of workers who, thanks to the pandemic, have no income at all?
According to The Washington Post, Senators Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin had a heated argument about this issue on Wednesday during a conference call, with Sanders pushing for broad aid while Manchin argued that enhanced unemployment benefits were more crucial.


Well, on most issues I'm a lot closer to Sanders than to Manchin, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate. But in this case I'm sorry to say that Manchin is right. The economic pain from the coronavirus has been very unevenly distributed: A minority of the work force has been devastated, while those who have been able to keep working have, by and large, done relatively well. Overall wages and salaries have bounced back quickly.


So if there's a limit on the amount of aid that can be given, it's more important to help the unemployed — and, in particular, to sustain that help well beyond the 10 weeks reportedly in the current deal — than to send checks to those who have been able to keep working. The best argument I can see for broader payments is political — people who haven't lost their jobs to the pandemic may be more willing to support economic relief for those who have if they also get something from the deal.
But why is there a limit on the amount of aid?
Republicans appear willing to make a deal because they fear that complete stonewalling will hurt them in the Georgia Senate runoffs. But they are determined to keep the deal under a trillion dollars, hence the reported $900 billion price tag.
That trillion-dollar cap, however, makes no sense. The amount we spend on emergency relief should be determined by how much aid is needed, not by the sense that $1 trillion is a scary number.


For affordability isn't a real issue right now. The U.S. government borrowed more than $3 trillion in the 2020 fiscal year; investors were happy to lend it that money, at remarkably low interest rates. In fact, the real interest rate on U.S. debt — the rate adjusted for inflation — has lately been consistently negative, which means that the additional debt won't even create a major future burden.
And even economists who worry about deficits normally agree that it's appropriate to run big deficits in the face of national emergencies. If a pandemic that is still keeping around 10 million workers unemployed isn't an emergency, I don't know what is.

Of course, we know what's going on here. While Republicans have made the political calculation that they must cough up some money while control of the Senate is still in doubt, they're clearly getting ready to invoke fear of budget deficits as a reason to block anything and everything Biden proposes once he's finally sworn in.
It should go without saying that the coming G.O.P. pivot to deficit hawkery will be completely insincere. Republicans had no problem with rising deficits during the pre-pandemic Trump years; they cheerfully passed a $1.9 trillion tax cut, mainly for corporations and the wealthy.
But the hypocrisy isn't the main issue here. More important, shortchanging relief in the name of fiscal prudence would mean vast, unnecessary hardship for millions of Americans. I'm an optimist about prospects for economic recovery once we achieve widespread vaccination. But that won't happen until well into 2021, and even a rapid recovery will take months after that to bring us back to something like full employment. Making a deal that only provides enhanced benefits for 10 weeks is like building a bridge that goes only a quarter of the way across a chasm.

And the case for more spending won't end with short-term economic recovery. We'll still need huge investments in infrastructure, child care, clean energy and more.
Republicans will try to stop all of this, claiming that it's because they're worried about debt. They'll be lying, and we shouldn't be afraid to say so.


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Juan

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

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