Washington fiddles while America burns
Rarely has the metaphor been more apt: Washington is fiddling while America burns. Congress and the Trump administration are barely negotiating anymore while unemployment remains at levels rarely seen since the Great Depression. Do not be fooled by the stock markets vitality (which reflects the strength of a handful of stocks that now dominate the indexes): The conditions for tens of millions of Americans are bleak, with few jobs, low incomes and a soaring number of business failures. And despite these emergency conditions worse than during the crisis of 2008 Washington simply cannot get its act together.
Political polarization has a lot to do with the breakdown in talks. Democrats and Republicans both gain more from their supporters by standing up to the opposing party than by compromising with it. That makes it very difficult to pass large complicated bills. And Democrats, clearly believing that they have the upper hand, are demanding that Republicans make larger compromises.
But at the heart of the problem is a substantive disagreement. Large numbers of Republicans believe the federal government should not be spending this much money, that the debt burden is rising to unconscionable levels and that the United States is risking its future financial health. Every one of these concerns is either wrong or largely exaggerated.
Lets start by remembering that this is an almost unique economic situation in which the economy has cratered not because of too much debt, a collapsing financial system, or any of the other usual causes of recession. The coronavirus pandemic has meant that people who would happily buy and sell goods and services cannot do so for fear of infection. Add government rules to that natural caution, and large parts of the economy have simply shut down. It is a great paralysis more than a great depression. And until a vaccine is administered widely, normal levels of economic activity will not return.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/washington-ddles-while-america-burns/2020/08/13/086d3e28-dda5-11ea-809e-b8be57ba616e_story.html
Moostache
(9,895 posts)REPUBLICANS in the SENATE are and specifically Mitch McConnell.
ALL of them (save Romney of all people) gave the fucking orange turd a free run from post-impeachment on (and really well before that)...
The fiddling is going on in Kentucky and trying to "both sides" this or even to allow implication that the House Democrats are "doing nothing" or "fiddling" is total, unacceptable BULLSHIT!
aquamarina
(1,865 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)orwell
(7,771 posts)Cons didn't care one whit about spending trillions to prop up the stock market and their fat cat friends. They rammed through bad legislation in record time to prop up Doucheolini.
Now they are "concerned" about spending when it applies to Main Street.
The Dems had a workable package months ago but the Con controlled Senate dragged it's heels. Poor little Don the Con couldn't get his FBI building DC hotel bailout and doesn't want to fund mail-in voting during the pandemic HE and his cronies botched.
I am sick of the he said she said journalism. There are two causes for this mess... Don the Con and the Republicans who have enabled him.
But...what did you expect from a party that doesn't believe in governance and public institutions in the first place?
You can't hire an arsonist to run your fire department...
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)One of those "neutral" commentators on CNN who seem to covertly support Repubs by using both-siderism.