Tag: stimulus bill

Spending Trillions in Dire Times

By Bryan Williams

A trillion here, a trillion there...pretty soon you're talking real money! Last year during the debate about the CARES Act, being the Republican that I am, I was taken aback at the sheer size of it. Congress and the Trump Administration were talking trillions of dollars. Woah.

I remembered just eight years ago (my mind is boggled realizing it's been that long) Representative Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was cautioning about our debt bomb and entitlement reform and how it was almost too late to do anything about it. The CARES Act, stimulus part II, and now TARP will conflate the national debt way past anything Paul Ryan dreamed of.

And yet ... we are in dire straits. I am relatively amazed at how well our economy has weathered the COVID pandemic from an economic standpoint, and from what I've read, weathered it better than most other countries. Is it because of the massive federal stimulus plans? Maybe Keynes was right?

What is a fiscal conservative to do? Are we to fight these stimulus plans, or see that they are necessary during this pandemic year? Isn't this what government should be doing? Ensuring folks are safe and able to get by when something happens through no fault of their own?

If I were a congressman or senator, I believe I would vote for the stimulus bill. I've seen too many restaurants and other businesses in my city closed up and people desperate. But I think I would also ask for strict accountability and audits after the fact to make sure these trillions are spent judiciously and legally.

The U.S. is still the world's number-one economy despite some of its competitors taking unfair advantage (that's you, China), as a global pandemic, and societal strife have done their best to bring it down. Paul Ryan was right. We do need to keep a watchful eye on our debt. But as my grandfather has half-jokingly always told me, "It's only money." I vote to stimulate.

—–

With COVID Relief Still Under Debate, Where Do We Go from Here?

By Nic Woods

President Donald Trump signed late Sunday evening the omnibus funding package, including $900 billion in coronavirus relief that Congress passed last week after denouncing the $600 relief checks to taxpayers as “disgraceful.”

The amount – $600 – is paltry, but so is the $2,000 Trump and Democrats in the House of Representatives sought, but Congressional Republicans blocked. 

The $2,000 may have helped six months ago, but it is all too little now for the households that need it most.

The relief the bill claims to offer does not make up for lost wages from closed businesses and, for those facing eviction, $2,000 is only a drop in a bucket that has grown larger for months. For small businesses that have really taken a hit (many of which were never able to receive funds in the first round “stimulus” bill) any relief may come too late to delay the inevitable. 

Many iconic places across the nation have already closed for good.

While an abomination, but also an opportunity for discourse that should happen post-COVID, along with health care, separating life security from job security is a conversation long overdue. If anything, the pandemic has shown what our country looks like when unfettered capitalism fails us all.

Because the “invisible hand of the market” does not work if supply and demand are as out of whack as they have been since March. As Harvard Business School economist Michael Luca told The New York Times back in October, “if a market is not safe, people won’t participate in it.” 

So COVID-19 has only exacerbated a process that has been occurring for much of the past 50 years. Secure, well-paying jobs with benefits were going the way of the dodo bird prior to 2020. Now service jobs – which have become a pillar of our economy, but also tend to require close contact – are in deep trouble. Retail and hospitality will continue to suffer unless they can guarantee worker and customer safety, and even large companies that did well during the outbreak are shedding jobs. 

Even the gig economy, which so many have relied on to make ends meet until jobs open up, has become oversaturated, with more shoppers, personal assistants, delivery persons and drivers than individuals or companies that need them.

But one thing is for sure. People who are not used to living in full, constant survival mode are going to be increasingly disgruntled having to scrounge for food, shelter, and clothing while others are making out like bandits. And it is something we must start talking about, because it is not just affecting the working class anymore. In a global pandemic, everyone is affected. 

And money protects no one when only some have it and others don’t. So, to those who fear socialism? What if a little is necessary to save capitalism from itself and keep the destitute from aiming their pitchforks at your door?

Nic Woods dedicates this column to the memory of anthropologist, activist, and author David Graeber, who died Sept. 2. Graeber’s work laid the groundwork that inspired Woods to write the column.

—–