American Rescue Plan

[57Brave]

Nuts & Bolts


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03...ho-is-eligible

guessing more analysis in the next few days

[57Brave]

Today, after almost 24 hours of debate, the Senate passed the American Rescue Plan, designed to help America rebuild after the scorched-earth devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote was 50 to 49, with all the Democrats voting yes and all the Republicans voting no. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) had to leave the vote to attend his father-in-law’s funeral (and, frankly, while I try not to editorialize here, more power to him for choosing his family at this moment), but would have voted no. That would have made Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote, but the bill was going to pass.

It is hard to overestimate the importance of this measure both for the present moment and as a sign of the direction in which the Democrats in charge of the United States hope to take the nation.

The relief measure is designed to address the dislocations of a pandemic that has, so far, taken more than a half a million American lives and thrown more than 10 million of us out of work.

America currently has a population of about 331 million people. By the end of 2020, more than 83 million Americans were having trouble meeting bills or buying food, and by January 2021, 30 to 40 million Americans were at risk of eviction because they could not make their rent payments. This crisis hit women and people of color the hardest because they tend to work in face-to-face jobs, which did not translate to remote work, and because the loss of childcare drove women out of the workforce. Thirty-nine percent of low-income households saw job losses early in the pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan addresses this crisis. It includes checks of $1400 for people who make less than $75,000, making up the difference between the $600 the last coronavirus relief measure provided and the $2000 the former president demanded. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The bill provides federal unemployment benefits of $300 a week until Labor Day to supplement state benefits. It provides $350 billion for state, local, and tribal governments, which will prevent further job cuts and enable services to continue. It provides $130 billion for schools, as well as support for rent payments and food. With its expansion of child tax credits, subsidies for childcare, expansion of food assistance, lowering of costs under the Affordable Care Act, and rental assistance, the American Rescue Plan could cut child poverty in half by the end of this year.

Its benefits should begin helping low-income and moderate-income people immediately, injecting money into the economy to help us recover from the economic effects of the pandemic, even as we are starting to get vaccinated to emerge from the pandemic itself.

The bill is a statement about the role of the government. Rather than trying to free individuals from the burdens of supporting an active government by cutting taxes and services—as Republicans since Reagan have advocated-- this bill uses government power to support ordinary Americans. It is a return to the principles of the so-called liberal consensus that members of both parties embraced under the presidents from Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, to Jimmy Carter, who left the White House in 1981. Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan, who told Americans in his Inaugural Address that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Since then, the focus of our lawmakers has been to cut government services, not build them.
And yet, those cuts have not created a more equal society in the United States; they have dramatically moved wealth upward. It is worth remembering that, while $1.9 trillion is an eye-popping sum of money, the 2017 Republican tax cut under former president Donald Trump cost at least $1.5 trillion and, if Congress makes the individual tax cuts permanent, will cost $2.3 trillion over the next ten years. (Unlike the individual tax cuts, the corporate tax cuts in the law do not expire.) The 2017 vote for yet another tax cut won no Democratic votes, just as this American Rescue Plan earned no Republican votes.
The change in the direction of government signaled by this bill could not be more dramatic.
The bill will now go back to the House, which will vote to accept the amendments. It will then to go to the Oval Office for President Biden’s signature.

- Heather Cox Richardson March 6, 2021
/////

An historic day.

[Jaw]

Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) had to leave the vote to attend his father-in-law’s funeral (and, frankly, while I try not to editorialize here, more power to him for choosing his family at this moment), but would have voted no.

Whaaat?

[cajunrevenge]

He said "try"

[cajunrevenge]

After reading the right wing media reaction to the covid bill I would like to congratulate black people on getting reparations.

[sturg33]

Bailing out ****hole cities like SF was as predictable as the sun. Bailing out these awful pensions was as predictable as the sun.

And just like the student loan nonsense, it does nothing to fix the underlying incompetence that got us here.

[57Brave]

Tim Hogan
@timjhogan
·
17h
Every Republican screaming about re-opening schools

just voted against money needed to re-open schools.

[57Brave]

Bailing out ****hole cities like SF was as predictable as the sun. Bailing out these awful pensions was as predictable as the sun.

And just like the student loan nonsense, it does nothing to fix the underlying incompetence that got us here.

you will never be one of them
no matter how hard you pucker
////

fun fact ??
the last (D) President to enter office not facing an imminent existential crisis --- JFK
Carter had to clean up Nixon
Clinton had to clean up Bush41/Reagan
Obama had to clean up Bush 43
Biden --- had to cleanup Trump Virus etc
.....

I would argue even JFK inherited Viet Nam and Eisenhower Cold War policies.
Not to mention the failed Eisenhower Middle East and Latin American policies that we are still dealing wih.
But, not to the degree the other 4. Where the economy and/or the democracy was on the brink.

You can look all of that up

[thethe]

Imagine thinking you need to be wealthy for these bailouts to hurt you. Its such stupid logic because the wealthy ones are the only ones who aren’t hurt by these type of things. In fact just the opposite as the fed balance sheet grows wealthy people’s investment portfolio grows with it.


The only people that actually suffer are the people 57 wants to help. He is just so stupid and blinded by his polo it all ideology that he doesn’t see reality.

[Tapate50]

Bailing out ****hole cities like SF was as predictable as the sun. Bailing out these awful pensions was as predictable as the sun.

And just like the student loan nonsense, it does nothing to fix the underlying incompetence that got us here.

****ING Gross....


This is TOTAL bull****

[thethe]

****ING Gross....


This is TOTAL bull****

Succession should happen.

I’d love to see the blue states crumble in less than a decade while freedom states that push individual responsibility thrive.

[57Brave]

Once I read an article concerning coaching and how to train athletes and how the successfull E Germans were.

The writer a football coach from NJ posed the question, "what was the sense of winning the cold war if we were to only turn around and treat our people like the E Germans"

Let's rephrase that what was the sense of winning the cold war to only devolve into, E Germany.

The water in our cities is undrinkable, the deals agreed to involving pensions were broken. Treaties with Native American are routinely broken and promise made during reconstruction were as well broken.
A politics made to suit and only serves the ruling class
////

We have the grand question before us, what kind of world do we want to live in ?

While considering that to yourselves consider this, the American Rescue Plan has a 75% approval at roll out
People do not want an austere government but one that functions fairly
and there is a pretty simple way of seeing that vision to fruition.
so again,
what kind of world do we want ?

[thethe]

All those bad things are happening in democrat controlled regions.

Ever wonder why places like Florida and Texas don’t have those types of problems?

[57Brave]

All but 20% of the country is served by Democrats
See the thread on the filibuster
///

Texas ?
have you been asleep ?

Have you ever been to Florida ?
Counties in Florida have the highest infant mortality rates in the US !!

South Beach and Mar a Lago are doing fine, but the rest of Florida ?
not so much

[57Brave]

https://twitter.com/zachdcarter/stat...03971557982209


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/o...overnment.html

[thethe]

All but 20% of the country is served by Democrats
See the thread on the filibuster
///

Texas ?
have you been asleep ?

Have you ever been to Florida ?
Counties in Florida have the highest infant mortality rates in the US !!

South Beach and Mar a Lago are doing fine, but the rest of Florida ?
not so much

Oh you mean a once in a generation weather event? You want to compare that to decades of mismanagement and awful policies that got us to this point in blue states.

You’re emblematic of a leftist. No awareness of reality.

Texas will be fine after this tragedy. People will mourn and never forget their lost love ones but the state will recover.

This is just the next bailout for destroyed blue states.

[sturg33]

57s blind loyalty to the D is pretty impressive, I'll give him that

[57Brave]

Oh you mean a once in a generation weather event? You want to compare that to decades of mismanagement and awful policies that got us to this point in blue states.

You’re emblematic of a leftist. No awareness of reality.

Texas will be fine after this tragedy. People will mourn and never forget their lost love ones but the state will recover.

This is just the next bailout for destroyed blue states.

That is like saying driving a car off a cliff is okay because it is a one offer

Texas like every other state in this nation is pretty p****ing far from "fine"

[Jaw]

He said "try"

It was a quote from Heather Cox Richardson, a far left academic who absolutely, positively, 100%, constantly editorializes on politics. She's basically the blog form of Keith Olbermann, if he had a few more IQ points.

[57Brave]

what is her take on Mr Potato Head ?

please define " far left "