{"id":191292,"date":"2021-03-01T03:01:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T00:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-1-9t-covid-19-stimulus-bill-is-a-progressives-wish-list\/"},"modified":"2021-03-01T03:01:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T00:01:54","slug":"the-1-9t-covid-19-stimulus-bill-is-a-progressives-wish-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-1-9t-covid-19-stimulus-bill-is-a-progressives-wish-list\/","title":{"rendered":"#The $1.9T COVID-19 stimulus bill is a progressive’s wish list"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#The $1.9T COVID-19 stimulus bill is a progressive’s wish list<\/strong>”
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Republicans should stop referring to the Democrats\u2019 newest ideological wish list as a COVID \u201crelief bill.\u201d Surely, there is some GOP spin doctor who can come up with a\u00a0more precise name for Joe Biden\u2019s $2 trillion partisan monstrosity?<\/p>\n

The media<\/a> have mobilized to warn us about the devastating fallout if the GOP opposes the Dems\u2019 plan; not only for the future of the country, but for their own party.<\/p>\n

Do you remember when the Republican resistance to President Barack Obama\u2019s partisan slush-fund \u201cstimulus\u201d bill sunk them in the 2010 midterms? Nor do I.<\/p>\n

Although polls told us that a majority of Americans supported Obama\u2019s efforts, not a single House Republican voted for the 2009 stimulus bill. By the next year, a majority had turned against the plan, and the GOP picked up a historic 63 seats, the biggest victory by a party in the midterm elections since 1938. By 2014, the Republicans, after remaining equally intractable\u00a0on other bogus stimulus efforts, would run both the Senate and House.<\/p>\n

Oh, the endless warnings we heard about the pitfalls of \u201cobstructionism\u201d in those days. When Republicans were sinking the 2011 stimulus, Obama adviser David Plouffe warned that it would be an American \u201ctragedy.\u201d\u00a0When Republicans represent the desires of their constituents, the nation suddenly becomes \u201cungovernable.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is possible that, by the point when Republicans objected to a second stimulus, the ObamaCare fight had already sunk the Democrats\u2019 national prospects. But in a sense, that\u2019s the point. There will be scores of other divisive policy debates between now and the 2022 midterms, and, thus far, Team Biden has shown no inclination to pursue meaningful consensus.<\/p>\n

And anyway, the same accusations will be leveled against the GOP. Republicans have the better long-term argument. \u201cCritics say that my plan is too big, that it costs $1.9 trillion,\u201d was Biden\u2019s Obama-esque reply to questions regarding his $2 trillion plan. \u201cLet me ask them: What would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out? Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? Should we not invest $290 million to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans who are unemployed so they can get by?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you for asking, Mr. President. How about the $570 million teachers-unions payoff that offers more \u201cemergency leave\u201d to erstwhile educators who have been paid all year to work from home and now stand in the way of reopening schools? How about the $50 million for abortion funding? How about the $350 billion to prop up the budgets of a handful of irresponsible states that refuse to balance their budgets?\u00a0The Biden plan provides $852 million for lefty-app<\/a>roved civic-volunteer agencies that have zero to do with COVID-19 relief or stimulus. Why? The majority of the bill has nothing to do with the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n

As once-hero and future-villain Mitt Romney points out in The Wall Street Journal,<\/a> the Congressional Budget Office\u2019s recent analysis of Biden\u2019s plan found that more than a third of proposed funding, around $700 billion, wouldn\u2019t be spent until 2022 or later, by which time the economy will be doing just fine. It is difficult not to suspect that the plan, like most other massive hikes, is propelled by a desire to create a new baseline for federal spending, so that, in the future, anything less can be framed as a drastic and \u00adimmoral \u201cspending cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five previous COVID-19 relief bills were filled with many stables\u2019 worth of Democratic hobbyhorses, but at least then there was a genuine case that the proposals had to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no such case now. With the pandemic likely to recede, the best stimulus will be a return to normalcy, accompanied by a handful of narrow, targeted bills designed to assist those who were the most adversely affected by the government-induced shutdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before long, there will be a backlash over the government\u2019s zealous and ineffective behavior during the pandemic, and Republicans should make sure they\u2019re on the right side of it. Sure, GOP legislators will be accused of being massive hypocrites on the issue of spending. And in most cases, these accusations will be true. But it is never too late to do the right thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A \u00adminority party that stands against waste, expansion of federal power and corrosive dependency only half the time is better than a \u00adminority party that never says a word.<\/p>\n

Twitter: @DavidHarsanyi<\/a><\/em>\n <\/div>\n