A bipartisan coalition has been working to reach a Covid compromise on state and local aid plus a liability shield.
The bickering seems endless. It’s been ongoing since September.
The Wall Street Journal reports GOP Leaders See Bipartisan Group’s Covid-Aid Effort Falling Short.
Top Senate Republicans signaled Thursday they wouldn’t accept a bipartisan group’s efforts to craft a compromise on state and local governments and liability protections during the pandemic, undercutting the coalition’s attempt to break the months-long impasse over a coronavirus relief package.
“My sense is that they’re not going to get there on the liability language,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R., S.D.) told reporters Thursday. “Even though they spent a lot of time trying to come up with sort of creative, innovative solutions to it, they’re just not going to be able to thread the needle.”
Aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday night told the staff of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) that he didn’t see any possible path from the bipartisan group on those two contentious issues that would be acceptable to Republicans, according to a senior Democrat familiar with the conversations.
The Issues
- Republicans want immunity for businesses. Democrats don’t.
- Democrats want more state aid and Republicans don’t.
- Trump wants another broad round of checks. Neither a majority of Republicans or Democrats want that but the Progressives side with Trump, a curious mix.
Trump muddied the water for no reason, siding with Bernie Sanders of all people.
Previously, Trump objected to blanket checks on the basis some people make more being unemployed than employed. He was correct then, not now.
But that is not where the blame goes.
Easy Compromise
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel came up with an easy compromise: Put off liability and other contentious issues until next year and agree on a basic package.
Until this week, Mr. McConnell had said that any package that passes the Senate must include beefed-up legal protections for businesses, schools and other entities operating during the pandemic. On Tuesday, Mr. McConnell instead urged moving forward with a smaller relief package that omits both the liability provision that Republicans want, as well as state and local funding, a Democratic priority, saying they could potentially be addressed next year.
“Our Democratic colleagues have not even let us pass noncontroversial money to invest in vaccine distribution,” Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Not unless the two parties settle a whole list of issues that are controversial the way they want.”
Pandemic Benefits Expire
On December 26, all the pandemic benefits at the Federal level expire in every state.
For many states and millions of people, Federal benefits have already expired.
McConnell’s compromise would get checks into the hands of the unemployed and provide money for vaccine distribution as well.
Nancy Pelosi suggested liability for 6 months, but that solves nothing. Lawyers would wait 6 months then fire a barrage of lawsuits.
Ironically, McConnell’s compromise leaves intact all lawsuits if you spend 2 seconds to think about it.
The Blame?
This one is easy. Nearly all of the blame goes to the Democrats for not accepting McConnell’s offer to do something that both sides agree on.
If Trump were to veto such a package, then the blame would go to Trump (or Republicans for not overriding the veto).
Finally, Pelosi keeps wanting the compromise she may have gotten last month. However, “last month” keeps changing.
She is the one who negotiated in bad faith expecting to ram through a Democrat wish list in January. She expected Democrats to win the Senate and to pick up seats in the House.
But just as people spoke against Trump, they spoke against massive Democrat social programs including bailouts of corrupt states like Illinois whose pension plans have gone amuck.
Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking on the unemployed.
For discussion of expiring benefits and the number of people affected, please see Unemployment Claims Jump to Highest Level Since September
Mish
Democrats…Pelosi admitted such…
Here are what to blame:
1. Too much freedom and privacy right. Look at VIETNAM, people had very restricted freedom and no privacy for 3 months, then less than were dead, the socuety re-open without vaccines. No one can get in the country without going through givernment controlled process, and it quarantined all people for 14 days, went through daily tests to make sure they dud not transmit the virus.
2. Contact tracing was used to isolate the area so no excuse to spread diseases.
3. Strict mask, social distance
All the virus were gone, and too many Chinese tried to get in to avoid virus as VIETNAM is free from virus.
4. Trump could not make states to stick with restrictions, and too much freedom for people to go around to spread the virus and did not follow the laws. In California, masks and social distance rules are not applied to governor, mayors, assembly state representatives as they broke the law all the times !
What do you expect ?
Pelosi is the one who negotiated in bad faith expecting to ram through a Democrat wish list in January. She expected Democrats to win the Senate and to pick up seats in the House.
But just as people spoke against Trump, they spoke against massive Democrat social programs including bailouts of corrupt states like Illinois whose pension plans have gone amuck.
“Pelosi is the one who negotiated in bad faith expecting to ram through a Democrat wish list in January. She expected Democrats to win the Senate and to pick up seats in the House.”
I don’t argue with that, but the sticking point, the liability issue, is the hold-up now, right? How is that on her? I have to put that one on the GOP.
“But just as people spoke against Trump, they spoke against massive Democrat social programs including bailouts of corrupt states like Illinois whose pension plans have gone amuck.”
As bad as the pension mess in IL and other places is, and no matter that it’s the fault of IL Democrat politicians……I don’t see much alternative to some kind of federal bailout. I’d be happy to see union employees take a reasonable haircut. Nobody should be able to retire and make as much or more than they did when they were working.
What is the alternative?….just let the pension system fail, when those people don’t even have Social Security? That seems wrong to me.
There’s absolutely an alternative – let the state of IL deal with it. It’s their problem and no way should taxpayers in the entire country be bailing out IL state pensions because IL can’t be bothered to get their crap together. Public employees take a haircut on their pension, IL residents pay more taxes, etc. Their problem, their fix.
“but the sticking point, the liability issue, is the hold-up now, right? How is that on her? ”
Because McConnell has offered to pass all but that and state bailouts — ie, to pass the relief measures that both Parties claim to support, and Pelosi won’t.
“I don’t see much alternative to some kind of federal bailout.”
Congress could pass a law that allows state governments to declare bankruptcy.
No bailouts needed. Now they just default on the pensions instead of begging the rest of the country to pay them.
They vote against defunding the police and expanding the supreme court. You’re reading too much into it.
Not biting, gonna stand by what I said before, had Trump listened to pro’s instead of encouraging life as usual back in April, stimulus debates might not even be an issue now.
Just wearing facemasks puts a huge dent in spread, he refused to even listen to that, for a disease the spreads more than 2X the flu, kills 10X the people who get it, the multiplier over all those 8 months is staggering.
We’re 4% of global population with 20% of all COVID now.
In any normal board or council meeting, it would be perfectly acceptable to split a larger proposal into constituent parts, and entertain debate and proposals piecemeal. The reason that Congress won’t is (a) they are buttressing positions by holding the American people hostage; and (b) they are not deciding on the basis of the merits/faults of different proposals.
“Trump wants another broad round of checks. Neither a majority of Republicans or Democrats want that but the Progressives side with Trump, a curious mix.”
Weird that the one and only guy looking out for the little people is President Trump. He will be missed.
“He will be missed”.
Just like Hugo Chavez. Always taking care of the peasants. He’s practically a saint.
Trump only looks out for one person. I’m pretty sure about that.
Well, I prefer the way Trump takes care of his family compared to how Biden does it – by a long shot!
Both families are a bunch of grifters. Hunter Biden, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump are all cut out of the same exact cloth……adult children who get unearned, crazy benefits, from being born to powerful people.
They are far more alike than they are different.
One of the steps to totalitarian government is where followers assign to their leader and family special authority and superiority.
Pelosi clearly mis-calculated. But if she had accepted a deal states would have still not gotten what they need. It’s clear though its not siply McConnnel but the entire Republican leadership who doesn’t want states getting money.
I think the GOP concern is legit — it’s one thing to print the states money to reimburse for COVID costs, and another to help bail them out of preexisting pension issues.
In a weird coincidence (maybe?), there’s a large correlation between states with pension issues and the states that were slammed the hardest with COVID in the first 3-4 months of the pandemic. So even if the distribution is reasonable, it looks suspect.
I think what’s lacking is the fear factor that existed back in the spring…back then the congress was willing to compromise because they knew the threat was real, existential and immediate.
Now, it’s just about money for some poor people. Yawn.
Let them eat cake.
The politicians don’t see the train wreck that’s coming. I wish they did, but they won’t get off their asses until the coming recession gets so bad they have to do something….and that day will come, and not too long in the future.
I don’t favor the liability protection….it’s just a bone thrown to the meat packers and other big employers who put minimum wage laborers at risk..and passing it could raise the bar forever and lead to even more abuses down the line.
I’m an employer, and I’m not asking for this kind of protection. I protect my people, and they know it.
But at this point in the pandemic I worry that we might all have to quarantine any day, due to someone calling me to tell me they came in for a routine visit yesterday or the day before…… and today they tested positive. I expect that to happen, unless we can get the numbers down quickly.
“I protect my people, and they know it.”
Short of closing or WFH (which doesn’t work for every business), you can not protect your employees or customers from a virus.
You can follow the best known practices to mitigate risk.
I was an employer and the liabilities from reopening factored into my decision to close up shop for the year (it’s all in storage now, I’ll come out of hibernation next summer to check my shadow and decide whether to hibernate longer). Wasn’t a major factor, but it was definitely a consideration.
The liability protection that I would have liked was simple.
That would be a reasonable approach to the liability problem, and I could go along with that. Makes perfect sense.
However, the issue is not that employers can somehow make life perfectly safe for employees. No employer can ever do that 100%.
In my business, it is a normal fact of life to be exposed to a number of killer pathogens in our daily work. Fortunately, due to HIV/AIDS and the resulting CDC guidelines for blood-borne pathogens, our infection control got very good in the 90’s.
And…..although I view COVID as more contagious (and perhaps more dangerous) than any of the rest of the long list….hepatitis, HIV, HPV, influenza, etc……I do believe we are achieving a very high degree of safety for both employees and patients.
The proof is in the pudding, at this point. We now have a track record. As of several days ago the ADA reported that there has not been a single case of COVID spread in a dental office in the US . That’s actually nothing short of amazing, since there are roughly 200,000 dentists in this country.
I would never tell an employee or a patient that I can guarantee that they will not get exposed to COVID in my office……but I do take very good precautions and practice very good infection control, which is something we do better than most healthcare professionals…since the aerosol risk is something we’ve known about for many years now.
Most people don’’t have the option of closing to make sure they don’f face liability. It would bankrupt me in a short time unless I sold off most of my assets. So that isn’t a viable solution…glad you can do it, but very few could and stay in business.
More on this can be found here, for anyone who might be interested.
But the Democrats in the House passed a bill back in May that covered all of this. McConnell has not put it on the Senate calendar.
If you really want to blame the Democrats, of course you will, but it’s dishonest to ignore that part of the story.
If McConnell had put the House bill through the reconciliation process, there would be a strong argument that the Democrats are to blame. But he has not done his job regarding that bill.
Democrats wanted a $3 trillion bailout of corrupt states like Illinois
That’s what the reconciliation process is for.
The Republicans have done ZERO since May, apparently thinking that only blue States were going to be affected. Now that it’s become clear that a global pandemic doesn’t care what political party you vote for, they pretend they want to do something.
Weak sauce, Mish.
No, it’s not. It’s for BUDGET items that are at least deficit neutral, but supposed to reduce the deficit. Free money stimulus bills aren’t even close.
When the House passes a bill, it is the Senate’s job to vote on it, not the minority leader’s job to pocket-veto it.
The Republicans sat on their hands for 6 months, doing NOTHING, when they could have been drafting their own bill and proposing their changes to the House bill. Obviously, this is what they’d have done if they had any interest in governing.
“Reconciliation” doesn’t only apply to the budget–it also occurs when the House bill and Senate bills are different and need to be adjusted/compromised into a single legislative act.
The fact that McConnell simply doesn’t schedule any legislation he doesn’t like is a very bad precedent. What happens if the Democrats take the Senate and do the same thing?
What ? Reconciliation ? That’s for bills that clearly REDUCE the deficit. No amount of free money, ever, regardless of how you spin it is even close. We’ve already exploded the deficit this year. They couldn’t pass that bill with reconciliation if they wanted to. And they don’t want to, anyhow.
More vaccine news–AstraZenica to start new trial for vaccine, trying to confirm previous effect noted with low first dose and higher second dose.
Warped speed.
Liability protection + less state aid = local economies opens and more people go back to work and earn a living
no liability protection + more state aid = local economies stay shut down and more people stay at home and collect checks while not working
hardly shocking
not saying i agree with any of those extremes. Reps would like you to work with no protections until you die, dems would like everyone to say home while magic money from the sky pays for it all. I’m in the camp where we can each make our own decision based on our own risk tolerance
Ill put the major blame on trump. All he had do was put on a mask with the American flag on it. Asked everyone to do it for their country his base would have ate it up. Are problems with covid would be less along with related issues. So republicans. Instead of blanket protections from lawsuits. I think is osha should cover it. The states can adjust their budgets and worry about shortfalls later
Why would are [sic] problems be less with a mask on?
Simple masks do absolutely nothing. There are many places where mask usage is 95% or greater and cases are still going up at the same rate. Masks don’t do a thing, other thank give people a false sense of security that they can otherwise do whatever they want.
Our system has moved away from representing the people of their state. It is now team red vs team blue and matches are based on party values not the needs of the country or individual state.
“It’s only 15 cases, soon will be zero”
This is ALL Trump, had he listened to health professionals instead invoking his arrogant know-it-all hubris we might have contained this last Spring to the extent we wouldn’t need such massive stimulus.
To that, thank God Trump didn’t figure out a way to force the CDC to “acknowledge” HCQ as a cure via some whacko claim of executive power.
The example of other countries who did everything the health officials said does not support your statement. Take Italy, for instance.
And what would have happened had everybody taken HCQ + Zinc?
I don’t know, but apparently you think you do.
Funny how your superior knowledge hasn’t been taken up by all these countries who don’t want this virus and all of its effects.
America accounts for 4% of global population, but 25% of COVID deaths.
Newsmax or FOX apparently forgot to tell you that detail.
% OBESITY?
Exactly. In many other countries with far less mortality they have been using Zinc, Vit.D, and Ivermectin. Only in America is the Pharma so strong that they tell everybody nothing can be done to create conditions for vaccine development and distribution.
Don’t know what Newsmax is. There is no Fox around here, except in the bush.
Not remotely true. Countries like France, Spain, Italy, and the UK have similar, if not worse death numbers from Covid per capita. Is Trump running those countries as well ?
We are to blame because for some unknown reason we keep electing the same xxxxxxxxxxxxx politicians! We are getting exactly what we deserve!
I debate that, get money out of politics to allow us a choice of candidates that aren’t catering to wealthy/corporate donors.
Rank Choice Voting would assist moving away from our duopoly political system that only serves special interests not the people.
Ranked voting is better. Even better is how they did it in the Athenian democracy: Select representatives at random, mostly people who don’t want to be representatives at all but must be forced anyways.
A big part of the problem are both sides have historically added riders that have nothing to do with economic relief.
The Turtle has been stonewalling on this for May. And disagree that putting aside the other things is the right idea as they will never again see the light of day.
McConnell is exactly where he wants to be: mass unemployment and poverty, angry armed right-wingers terrorizing and threatening officials at the state and local level, and soon a government shutdown. The last card he hopes to fall is Trump being installed as dictator. This is the moment for the descendants of the men of the “Businesssman’s Plot.”
I think he’d be happier with an energized republican electorate in 2022 and especially 2024 giving him a GOP house and a fellow GOP senator as president that he can control.
None of the blue or red jackalopes that have the power to make a deal care enough about the people to do so. Our leaders suck. Maybe Mitch is right on this one, but it’s balanced out by other failures, as is the case with the lot of them.
McConnell has been stonewalling and negotiating in bad faith (or leaving the negotiation to Mnuchin, knowing it would be DOA in the senate) for 6 months now. Not that there isn’t blame to go around, but to say that the Democrats are more to blame for not jumping on the first offer without a poison pill within 3 days is a little harsh. And I understand their position. Judging by past actions, if McConnell wins one of the Georgia seats, we are unlikely to see a single legislation action from him to help the American people for the next 2 years. I’m sure he will rely on the normal midyear deficit for a sitting president to pick up (or at least keep) his seats in 2022, and would not lift a finger to save his own grandmother if Biden would get credit for it.
Meanwhile, because covid is the economy right now…
GSK and Sanofi vaccine trials prove ineffective in older people. Australian vaccine abandoned because of false HIV positive results in test subjects. And, the question for the Pfizer vaccine remains–it may prevent illness, but does it prevent transmission? And, Pfizer’s delivery of the first limited order of vaccine to the US will be complete by March, and none will available in the second quarter.
….Pfizer board member and former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC Tuesday that the federal government declined “multiple times” to purchase more doses of Pfizer’s vaccine over the summer, and it may have missed out on getting more in the second quarter of 2021.
“Pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plan — basically the second quarter allotment — multiple times,” Gottlieb told CNBC.
Gottlieb noted that the government has agreements to buy hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines from six manufacturers as part of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s more than $10 billion push to make a coronavirus vaccine available in record time. He suspects the government is betting more than one vaccine would ultimately get the FDA’s authorization….
…In July, Pfizer signed a $1.95 billion agreement with Operation Warp Speed. As part of the deal, the government agreed to purchase 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, but the transaction would occur only if the vaccine Pfizer is developing in partnership with BioNTech, a German company, received the FDA’s OK….
…If the U.S. did miss out on more doses because it declined them, it would be “a spectacular failure,” said Rena Conti, a health economist at Boston University.
“Contracts are forward-looking, that means we could have (and did) sign contracts with other manufacturers that reserve future capacity when it became available,” she said. “We should have [been] including language in every contract reserving the rights to more quantity in advance at a given price.”
Although the Pfizer contract includes the option to buy an additional 500 million doses of its vaccine, that transaction would require a separate agreement, and the price would be subject to change, the contract says.
“Having more quantity reserved is smart economics given the uncertainty entailed in which vaccine comes to market in a given time period, and which vaccine will be most safe, [effective] and able to manufacture at scale,” Conti said. “There is no downside cost or risk to having these forward contracts and there is plenty to gain for the American public.”
State and local governments most to blame because they caused the economic fallout, not the federal government, not the virus itself, either. Stay safe and stay stupid!
Could you elaborate on that comment?
… ah, the unsubstantiated $ over lives free market approach. how did that work out for Sweden ?
stay stupid continues
A lot better than here in the US.
The Republicans (Trump and Congress) have not held a steady position on another stimulus from the the spring–all the way from zero to 2 trillion. It moves every day, depending on the audience and circumstance. It’s still oscillating wildly.
When Mr. Chao says he’ll do something, Trump says he will only sign another plan.
The entire Republican party is infected with the idea “it’ll just go away”, and when the virus doesn’t, they waffle.