The supposed “American Rescue Plan” has passed the Senate with some minor changes to the $1.9 trillion leftist wish list which only allots 42% of it’s staggering spending to COVID19 related items. According to CNBC, “Some of the most notable changes between the two relief bills include dropping a provision to gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour and reducing the number of people who will qualify for a $1,400 stimulus payment.” As of Tuesday, the House has signed off on the bill and is voting on the additional amendments. The bill is expected to be signed by Biden within the week.
CNBC explained that individuals earning an adjusted gross income (AGI) up to $75,000 (and married couples earning up to $150,000) are eligible for the the full $1,400 each, plus $1,400 for each dependent. In the Senate version, the payments phase out much more quickly than in the House version: No individual with an AGI over $80,000 or couples earning over $160,000 will receive one.
By and large however, a mind-boggling amount of unrelated spending items were allowed to remain in what one could only cynically call a “COVID relief bill”. It’s positively packed with special interest items.
According to USA Today, the bill contains COVID unrelated (special interests) items such as:
” a $1.5 million bridge connecting New York and Canada; a $100 million underground rail project in Silicon Valley; $480 million for Native American language preservation and maintenance; and $50 million in environmental justice grants.”
The GOP Were Powerless To Stop It
Republicans could do little to stop of even slow the Democrat-Socialist, Corporatists and Special Interests bulldozing the bill through, Fox59 reported, “As soon as the Senate began considering the bill, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., forced the chamber’s clerks to begin reading the entire 628-page measure aloud. He said earlier that he was doing it to “shine the light on this abusive and obscene amount of money.”
Johnson’s effort exposed the main concern of Republicans in the Senate: that despite increased vaccinations, states opening due to lowered case numbers and death rates, the Democrats were ramming through an overpriced, special interests leftist spending spree with no regard for the consequences on the American economy. “Instead of heading into a dark tunnel, we’re accelerating out of it,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky)
Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gloated that Senator Johnson would “accomplish little more than a few sore throats for the Senate clerks.”
What Are The Democrat Special Interests Items?
Less than half of the pork-packed bill has anything to do with COVID,
As for COVID related items, the 22% of the bill will go toward, “the $422 billion set aside for $1,400-per-person stimulus checks. Another 13% ($246 billion) is for extending additional unemployment funding of $400 a week. The Senate bill updated this to $300 per week through September 6th and made the first $10,200 in UI received in 2020 non-taxable for households with incomes under $150,000.
About 8.5% of the $1.9 trillion, at most, goes to direct containment measures such as vaccines and testing. The total is somewhere between $100 billion and $160 billion, depending on whether one includes items like $10 billion in medical supplies and $24 billion in child care for essential workers, as the White House does in arriving at the larger figure.
A combined 12% is going to:
- Subsidized COBRA for laid-off workers.
- Affordable Care Act subsidies for the next two years.
- Expanded nutrition assistance to replace school lunch programs during the pandemic.
- Funding for testing and contact tracing.
- Disaster Relief Fund increases and covering COVID-19-related funeral expenses.
- Grants to airlines and contractors to freeze layoffs through September.
- Defense Production Act funding for medical supplies.
- Grants for restaurants and bars that have lost revenue in the pandemic.
- Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance grants of up to $10,000 per business.”
Grand total: 42.5% of the $1.9 Trillion actually goes toward Coronavirus related items while a staggering 57.5% is pegged for “long-standing policy priorities that are not directly related to the current crisis,” as well as other as of yet undescribed items. Now, that wouldn’t upset the American people would it?
This is a distraction, to keep the American people cowed and afraid, instead of filled with righteous anger.
