Republicans' pandemic blunders keep piling higher

[Zorro]

For most Americans, deadlines are real things. Homework must be done when the teacher says it’s due. Projects must be finished when the boss says they’re to be presented.

But when it comes to desperately needed aid for millions of Americans, Republicans are taking deadlines just as seriously as they’ve taken health experts’ guidance during this pandemic. That is to say: Not at all.

Already cutoff dates are coming and going. The federal ban on rental evictions expired Friday (though White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow promised it would be extended). The extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits under the Cares Act expire this coming Friday; the last checks have already gone out. And most small businesses that received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program have exhausted that money.

Back in May, and well ahead of these deadlines, Democrats passed the Heroes Act, which among other measures would extend the $600-a-week bonus and issue a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks. Republicans were supposed to have their version ready by the middle of last week. Wednesday came and went. So did Thursday. On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, “Hopefully we can come together behind some package we can agree on in the next few weeks.”

Don’t worry, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin assured viewers of “Fox News Sunday”: Republicans were “just working on technical issues in the drafts” even though “we had previously agreed on all these issues earlier in the week.”

The centerpiece of the GOP plan — reducing the unemployment benefits — is, if nothing else, well-suited to conservative doctrine. That was the clear theme on Sunday morning: “We want to make sure … people don’t get paid more to stay home than they do to work,” Mnuchin said. On ABC’s “This Week,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows criticized the expiring benefits as counterproductive: “Actually a lot of people got more money staying at home than they would going back to work.” Over on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) claimed that “small business owners all over the state of Texas” can’t reopen because their workers prefer to stay home and draw unemployment benefits.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/26/republicans-pandemic-blunders-keep-piling-higher/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. So idiots can't even write a bill, even with prior bills as a road map to write the new bill? And

they are ranting and raving about workers staying home instead of working in such dire conditions for barely minimum pay?

Sure a lot of people are staying home and collecting the pay but also, businesses are abusing the bills by claiming more employees than they really had and pocketing the extra money (and not paying the employees either), businesses are still firing employees and still pocketing proceeds when they promised to retain employees, and businesses are gutting the money allocated to the programs and emptying far more quicker than Congress anticipated, because a lot of businesses who didn't need the money (a failure of the republicans to realize how greedy businesses are) still dipped their hands into the till and grabbed whatever they could. They kept this portion of the bill (revealing who got money from the program) secret for six months...wonder why?

The republicans knew that this was going to happen, these excesses and thus they need to get off their high horse and start working on a truly comprehensive and complete bill, w/o the gross excesses that have already happened. They need to write into the bill some enforcement mechanisms to claw back inappropriately claimed money too but this won't ever happen. Most companies, caught w/ their hands in the till, such as Harvard, are rebating the money but how many still grabbed money that we don't know about?

[magicarpet]

2. Damn poor people,...

..... they want/expect the government to solve all their problems. Rich people deserve the help.