Covid Talk Recap
On Wednesday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said it was Friday or Trump’s way.
On Thursday and Friday Meadows Gave a Hard Line in Coronavirus Talks with Democrats.
Mr. Meadows, joined by Mr. Mnuchin, has met daily with Mrs. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) to hash out differences between a Senate Republican plan totaling $1 trillion and a House Democratic measure that cleared the House in May totaling $3.5 trillion. Late in the week, Democrats proposed a package somewhere around the $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion range, but Republicans rejected it, and talks Friday showed no signs of progress.
The White House has offered concessions from the initial Republican opening bid, such as agreeing to a $400-a-week federal jobless supplement, up from the Senate GOP proposal for an interim $200-a-week supplement before shifting to a program in which the federal assistance, when combined with state aid, would make up 70% of lost wages. Democrats haven’t budged on their demand for a $600 weekly federal supplement, or their demand for large-scale aid to states and localities, although they have agreed to shorten the duration of such assistance to lower the cost of their plan.
Compromise Fails
I believe $400 is a reasonable compromise but it was a no go. Moreover, that compromise might not have passed the Republican Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has stayed out of the daily talks, has previously estimated that at least 20 of his colleagues might not support any new stimulus package, amid concerns over mounting federal budget deficits.
Mr. Meadows “wants to make sure like I do we take care of the people who have lost their jobs,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.). “But you can’t bankrupt the country.”
“You Can’t Bankrupt the Country”
There’s hypocrisy at its finest. Trump and the Republicans are responsible for massive budget deficits before Covid hit.
Nearly all of the deficit increase went straight to the wealthy and the military. The middle class got next to nothing from Trump’s tax cut.
Trump Will Go It Alone
On August 5 Trump threatened “I will do it myself if I have to. I have a lot of powers with respect to executive orders,” said Trump despite the fact he has no constitutional basis to do so.
It seems we are headed that way as Talks on Friday Failed.
Mr. Trump said he was set to take executive action to suspend the payroll tax, retroactive to July 1 and running through the end of the year. He also said he intended to extend recently expired jobless payments through December, but he declined to say how large the payments would be. He reiterated that he would impose a partial moratorium on evictions and assist with student-loan payments.
“If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,” said Mr. Trump, in remarks from his club in Bedminster, N.J. He said the orders were being drafted, and he expected potential legal challenges if he moved ahead.
“Unfortunately, we did not make any progress today,” Mr. Mnuchin said. “The chief and I will recommend to the president, based upon our lack of activity today, to move forward with some executive orders.”
Democrats said they had offered Thursday night to scale back their proposed spending by $1 trillion if Republicans increased theirs by $1 trillion. “If we take down a trillion and they add a trillion, we’ll be within range,” Mrs. Pelosi said. She said that Democrats could reduce the cost of their offer by shortening the length of some benefits, such as the 15% increase in food-stamp benefits they have proposed.
Legal, Who Cares?
I highly doubt we see a deal this weekend. Will they even meet?
On the Silly Side
Pandemic Checks Stopped
On July 25 the Clock Ran Out on $600 in Weekly Unemployment Benefits as Republicans and Democrats bickered over the next round of stimulus.
On July 29, Trump announced “So Far Apart on Covid Deal That We Don’t Really Care”
Now McConnell says 20 Senators might nix any deal.
That would guarantee Republicans lose the Senate in November and it is close already.
Mish
Now they fear monger the dumb public until they get what they want.
Who believes this shit anymore.
Trump has stolen the Democrats thunder on this one. By taking action that gives stimulus to the end of the year, it is no longer a issue Democrats can use for the election which is what they were planning . They will look stupid to try to fight what Trump has done, and lose a lot of public support.
Nothing says “man of the people” more than an executive proclamation for the unemployed issued in front of a handful of entitled dunderheads between golf games at a country club with an initiation fee of over $350K
Payroll tax cut won’t get help to the unemployed and just defunds SS and medicare. Businesses at risk for non-payment of these funds.
Unemployed to get less money, via what? Via an unknown route from FEMA funds to the state unemployment at the beginning of what is supposed to be a record hurricane year? Set up to take weeks, and ends at the end fiscal year–September!
What a deal?? The fart of the deal.
Fed agencies to “look” at ways of forestalling evictions. Hasn’t this already been done?
Fear not! Trumpty and the Munchkin have the checkbook out… how many trilllions ya need? No poors, please!
The next time any Republican claims over reach by an American President this is Exhibit A. I blame all. My solution lock our leaders in a room until they come to a compromise. This is a lot of bull*&^t. In a democracy we compromise. It stinks and we all know it, but that is how the government runs. Congress authorizes spending, not the President – Government 101.
I liked the part where Trump referred to page 1768 of the dem’s quickly assembled lobbyist composed ‘bill’. Kinda says it all.
Trump just tore congress and the media a new excrement chute.
Major News Conference in 10 minutes!!!
Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial-Congressional complex. Funny how that last part always gets left out.
Thanks, I stand corrected. I was under the Mandela Effect on this one, having read something about it years ago. Current consensus is that Eisenhower did not intend to include Congress in his warning.
“Aid to states & localities totaling $1 trillion would have 10x the impact on next year’s GDP than resuming the $600 a week jobless benefits.” — this message brought to you by PUBLIC UNIONS.
Think of the pension funds!
“Nearly all of the deficit increase went straight to the wealthy and the military. The middle class got next to nothing from Trump’s tax cut.”
Fascism, a public-private partnership, is welfare for corporations paid by the working class.
There is no dealing with Democrats because their agenda is not to help the country. Their agenda is to bankrupt the country, and then to implement a socialist / communist form of government.
Preorders will start soon for the The Art of Executive Order: How Donald Trump Executive Ordered the Nation to Greatness.
Democrats are idiots. $400 you can’t settle with? Republicans too. Cut military spending for a year or two to pay for all this. Same goes with the neoliberal Democrats. Both parties suck. Trump has to do what a leader does-make a decision!!! I don’t blame him. Use the executive pen and get it done.
The piggies want their pork.! All of it!
The swamp is truly bipartisan.
Yes.
The last exit before assured national financial catastrophe was at Mile Marker 1992, Perot.
Here we are.
The President of this country claims to have written “The Art of the Deal” where his prowess as a negotiator and dealmaker were portrayed as second to none.
It is clear that he is no negotiator. He cannot bring opponents together to work out worthwhile solutions.
The only “solutions” to problems throughout his term has been action by emperor’s fiat. And the outcomes of those arbitrary actions have shown exactly why he has had multiple business failures and went bankrupt multiple.
He loves the kind of power he has now.
“The only “solutions” to problems throughout his term has been action by emperor’s fiat.”
…
Yes, he is no consensus builder. His fawning over strong arm world leaders (Kim, Putin, Erdogan, Xi) reveals what kind of operator he desires to be.
The Republicans don’t want a deal because they are split in their own party. Their lies about State support prove my point – they claim it’s a blue state bailout when in fact the money would be evenly sent to all States based on a per capita formula. They’re selling propaganda to people who can’t do basic 5th grade math. Massive budget cuts across all States and cities will cause an increase in unemployment. Trump cannot stop payroll taxes- he can delay collection but they are 100% still due – so every company will still collect them. Companies get more time to file payroll tax returns but YOU still owe the same tax. This provides ZERO benefit to working people. The company will still deduct payroll tax every pay period and the COMPANY gets to keep the money for a while. If the employee left, then the employer would Owe that tax so they MUST collect the tax every pay period from us – no exceptions. No Democrat will sue to stop this nothing burger because it’s a disaster for the Republicans. They will promise a tax reduction and then no one gets a tax break. People know when their paycheck is bigger and when it is not. You think people won’t notice that they are still getting charged for payroll taxes? No one is that stupid. Not when it comes to their own paycheck.
“Trump cannot stop payroll taxes- he can delay collection but they are 100% still due – so every company will still collect them.”
…
That is the way I see it. It will take an act of Congress to change … in meantime business will still collect … or, as you point out, since ultimately responsible if no Congressional action.
Isn’t there a perpetual annual bail out of red states with revenue from the highly taxed blue states.
Rather the opposite.
Wealth redistribution is 90+% done via Fed engineered handing of wealth, stolen by debasement, to welfare queens in FIRE, asset pumping and ambulance chaser rackets these days. Only very little of it is still done via traditional tax transfers.
If you want to see what locales are being handed wealth originally earned by others, you need to look at where banksters and other FIRE leeches, asset owners and ambulance chasers mostly live. Which is mostly in “Blue” states.
I’m confused about why the 20 members of the Senate (the ones that won’t vote for any plan) even matter? If the Democrats and the Administration support the plan, you don’t need many Republicans at all to pass the bill in the Senate.
They won’t matter. Senate will pass whatever Administration + House agree on.
Enough Republican Senators will then vote yeah … while claiming they were “forced” to vote for this particular bill … or nothing. Will play better to voters in future elections / primaries in Red states.
McConnell should have won passage of HEALS Act and then drove hard negotiations with Pelosi. Instead, we have a Republican led senate trying its best to sit it out (though ultimately voting for some massive package) to avoid wrath of true conservatives.
On August 5 Trump threatened “I will do it myself if I have to. I have a lot of powers with respect to executive orders,”
…
I ran it through the gobblygook translator … out spit:
I’m likely a private citizen in a few months … and dammit, I’m gonna bail out my hotels and buddies before I leave …
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has stayed out of the daily talks,”
…
Leadership in action … er, … inaction …
The Senate never passed any bill. If they passed something there could be a reconciliation effort. It never even got to that point. Continued funding was already doomed. And the White house has never gotten behind anything.
The White House has actively sabotaged the entire Covid response and any efforts to control it or deal with the consequences, nothing could be more perfect evidence than the demand schools reopen for mandatory in class attendance.
And they did this KNOWING that they could use popular desperation to blackmail democrats into their own version of stimulus which is typical GOP to the bone, give trillions to Wall Street and also immunity from suits related to abuse and death of their labor pool.
Now they are threatening to kill the constitution by ending checks and balances which would render the US House of Representatives nothing more than a country club. Usurping the power of the purse would end our way of life and trigger war. The USA would NOT survive it.
Sure we may continue on as a totalitarian police state in which elections are meaningless and the executive has all the power, to nominate a puppet justice system/courts, wew are more than halfway there now with the criminal Bill Barr at it’s head. Where the house and senate are simple bureaucracies that can no longer maintain good order or remove a power mad psychopath from his life term in office. But that will NOT be the USA, that little experiment in democracy will have ended. And what sickens me is how many on the far right actually want this. Well, so it was in the Confederacy, and so the outcome will be the same.
McConnell is despicable.
He has totally abdicated negotiation to M&M (Meadows and Mnuchin) … wearing latex gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints on any bill.
I remember an interview with Paul Ryan after he was Speaker of the House. On the topic of exploding deficits … while Republicans in charge … whined he had no control of the situation.
Really? As Speaker of the House? NO bill makes it to the floor without his consent. Disgusting how those in charge want to blame others for THEIR actions (or inactions).
Mish you introduce this with the following: The Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a compromise on Friday. Trump has threatened to call his own shots.
You have exceptionally high standards in your capacity as a journalist though I know your first calling is economics, but that tagline is borderline misleading.
In fact the democrats passed a $3.4 trillion stimulus package to follow the CARES Act that the GOP called DOA many weeks ago when it was first unvieled. A full month later they finally came up with a responding stimulus package themselves that was about one trillion. But, it was also larded with non stimulus junk that they KNEW was going to be DOA to the democrats the moment they announced it. It was not an offer to negotiate it was blackmail and left the actual people out of the equation, though Wall Street was very happy with it, especially the part about giving them absolute immunity from suits related to killing employees and getting them sick.
It even included about a billion and a half for a new FBI building next door to Trump’s DC hotel so that he could profit personally.
So, weeks go by and the democrats say yesterday to the GOP “Hey, we will slash a trillion from our plan if you will add a trillion to yours.” It was an invitation to negotiate and compromise but the GOP has said flat out no. And their putative (insane but still in office) party leader Donald the fat orange spy Trump said he will just take executive action, like what I wonder because he does not have the authority to appropriate funds. He has some little room to shift about funds already appropriated in a few of the more discretionary departments, but taking unilateral action of a multi trillion dollar stimulus implies he will draft and impliment his own stimulus plan, and that he cannot do under our constitution where only the US House has appropriation authority.
The GOP has somehow got it in its collective heads that spending is and always will be anathema to the American majority no matter the state of economic emergency, and the fact is Covid economic relief for the PEOPLE has the approval of not only most Americans but of most republicans right now. Yes, there are bits that are unacceptable like the grossly over generous $600 per week that even I think is crazy and deeply resent, but, the GOP has stepped on a landmine that will destroy the party for a generation if they do not come to the table and negotiate a compromise which anyone can see the democrats are willing to talk and the GOP just is not, like babies they demand their own way and will kill this nation if they do not get it.
The last time the USA was in this deep an economic crisis was early 1930, and the GOP was in control then under president Hoover. Their response was a non response or worse actually, it was deep austerity that strangled the already reeling economy. The result was the Great Depression and it scarred everyone who lived through it for life. We are now on the cusp of another possibly worse situation and the GOP seems to be actively working to guarantee that 90% or more of us sink. They do not realize that the US likely will not survive such an economic calamity and they will ahve killed the prosperity they so covet.
So the Chinese curse is full blooded in our laps in that we are living in interesting times. Those intersting times might lso kill us and will make us very unhappy, as a nation we may change so much that for all intents the old US will have died and a new one born, that we do not fit in. Or, it might also just end. In spite of all the internet assurances what comes after will NOT be better than what was killed.
The Dems don’t need to take him to court. Any business that collects withholding could claim standing that if they stopped withholding while the treasury was not collecting the tax and a court later found it illegal, they would be on the hook for the funds. Same goes for any state sending out extra unemployment. The GOP should keep in mind how future president Ocasio-Cortez might use the usurping of the power of the purse from congress.
That is just it, the executive branch has NO authority to spend anything the US House did not appropriate. Any checks Trump thinks he can write would bounce, the US treasury cannot issue funds to anyone without congressional approval. That puts Mnuchin in a delicate position of having to tell Trump and the GOP he cannot do as they demand without a spending authorization from congress. No matter how badly the GOP and Trump need stimulus they cannot just unilaterally start sending out money that the house did not appropriate. No going to court, no suit, Trump would be breaking the law and so would Mnuchin if he complies, the only response should be instant impeachment. If Trump and the Treasury were to do this it would effectively end the constitution not just trigger a constitutional crisis, few things in our constitution are as black and white and well defined as the house’s power of the purse strings. It would be a coups d’état. The founders made it that way so that compromise would be FORCED into the debate. This is the heart and soul, the ONLY real leverage in the doctrin of checks and balances.
And I will also point out that there would be no need for this unthinkable siezure of power he does not have if Trump had acted like a president in the first place and led his party to work for a solution rather than stonewall the democrats in what can only be described as a purely mercenary political grab. Put the population into desperate financial straights during an unprecedented emergency and then use their veto power to blackmail the democrats in the house to giving a black check to the GOP to hand th keys to the treasury over to Wall Street and then exempt those billionaires from any legal liability for killing their workers?
The GOP is courting the end of this nation. The libertarian (far FAR right wing) factions on the internet are actively calling for civil war and by god you all are going to get it if you insist on breaking all our most basic laws and shitting on the constitution. This nation will simply end before Trump is allowed to short circuit the constitution.
Apparently you failed to notice that the courts allowed him to take money from the military budget appropriated (as I recall) to build military housing, and to use it for building his wall. (Bridge financing, I guess, until Mexico coughs up the money.) It’s only illegal if the courts find it to be illegal, and Trump has been packing the courts.
I had not failed to notice, I mentioned above that he has certain discretion to shift some funds around that had already been appropriated, but those must be accounted for and we are talking millions or a few billion and under the cover of DHS requests for the funds, also the 9th circuit held it to be illegal and bipartisan voices in the house have echoed what Pelosi and Schumer have said; “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that the cuts represent another broken promise Trump has made to service members. “This latest effort to steal Congressionally-appropriated military funding undermines our national security and the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.”
This is a big illegal deal but it is NOTHING like what Trumps is proposing to do with unilateral action on Covid relief, what can he do? Shift a whole trillion in government appropriations designated for other departments in order to fund his BIG BEAUTIFUL Covid relief for Wall Street?
And just about 7 weeks ago Trump lost his fight to do this anyway, now the matter will be going to the SCOTUS where they will no doubt allow for some diversion of funds in a declared emergency for urgently needed applications, but I seriously doubt this would rise to that standard.
Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Diversion of Military Funds for Border Wall
An appeals court ruled that President Trump illegally diverted funding for his border wall without congressional approval, likely sending the issue to the Supreme Court.
In the appeals court majority opinion you see this:
“These funds were appropriated for other purposes, and the transfer amounted to ‘drawing funds from the Treasury without authorization by statute and thus violating the Appropriations Clause,’” Judge Thomas said in his opinion.
So the fifth circuit allowed him to use military funds and 9th ruled against it, meaning this will automatically be referred to SCOTUS to settle the differences between the two circuits.
Trump’s action really strikes at the heart of Congress’ power of the purse. Does sound unconstitutional an illegal but I’m sure Bill Barr will offer a different perspective.
I’m not surprised we’re here. Hard to get a deal one when one side Republicans can’t agree on what their side is. Meadows was leaving the bargaining position at the door of Democrats saying if you come with a proposal that’s good our side will rally , never actually saying what Republicans want because truth is they are divided on this one. Additionally Trump was not engaged. He spent any political capital putting together a White House plan or telling Senate Republicans what he’d support. Trump was off playing golf this weekend and hasn’t spoken to Pelosi for months. He’s too bitter. The role of liaison has fallen to Mnuchin.
How do you make decisions when the tests themselves are not reliable? I was happy to find this article tonight after hearing a Dr. Vin Gutpa on either CNN or MSNBC Friday say that he has seen cases where 5 different PCR tests on the same person came back with different results each time. This article explains the problem with PCR tests.
Too many decisions are being based on untrustworthy numbers, whether case numbers or death numbers.
Jun 27, 2020
COVID19 PCR Tests are Scientifically Meaningless Though the whole world relies on RT-PCR to “diagnose” Sars-Cov-2 infection, the science is clear: they are not fit for purpose
Torsten Engelbrecht and Konstantin Demeter
And here’s a story from way back in 2007 in the NY Times confirming this!
Faith in Quick Test Leads to Epidemic That Wasn’t
By Gina Kolata
Jan. 22, 2007
“COVID19 PCR Tests are Scientifically Meaningless”
If credible, that editorial published over one month ago does a good job of blowing the whole situation wide open, doesn’t it? It also casts doubt upon Dr. Fauci, because Dr. Fauci has selectively emphasized that HCQ cannot be recommended as a therapeutic based on lack of evidence from randomized controlled trials, and meanwhile he has made no similar public criticism of the PCR tests, which deserve at least equal cynicism.
PCR being an unreliable litmus for the presence of infection might also explain why hospitalization and death rates now are much lower than one might expect from the current “infected” rates. When testing expanded to include people without symptoms such as a fever, we likely started including more false positives in the data. This would lead us to believe there are more asymptomatic cases than there actually are, because the expanded pool of tested now includes people who do not have outward signs of infection such a fever, which was not the case initially. I also personally know of at least one person who probably was infected based on symptoms, but who received a negative PCR test result.
What a $h!t show. We should stop relying on PCR tests to screen for infection until they have been proven to be accurate and reliable using Koch’s postulates. COVID-19 has been illustrative of the incompetence riddling various levels of society, especially government, and yet many people think the answer is to make these organizations even bigger and more expensive. I implore everyone to think very carefully about the consequences of going that direction. The outcome would not be good.
If you question the credibility of the link I posted, then what of the 2nd link, to a NYT article from 13 years ago? Surely that meets any credibility test?
Not questioning the credibility of your first post. I am indicating that I am not in a position to independently validate that the PCR SARS-CoV2 tests are as unreliable as being described. What is being described sounds reasonable and is consistent with the problems Dr. Fauci explained when they were first checking how well PCR tests worked on evacuees from Wuhan to the US.
I remember Fauci stating in his press conference, “I can tell you with 100% certainty whether or not someone is infected with HIV using a blood test…With the Coronavirus PCR test, the same person will test positive, then negative, then positive again…” That problem disappeared from press coverage and was presumed to be fixed, but perhaps it was never fully solved. Based on the comments in your link, the cycle requirement of >35 should have cast serious doubt over whether or not the PCR test could ever be accurately used for diagnosing a SARS-CoV2 infection. I have never seen a test kit in person, but if there is a legal disclaimer that says, “For research only. Not for diagnostic use” then that says it all. We should stop all mass testing right now if the tests are that unreliable. Use clinical diagnosis only and make certain people have the information they need to otherwise get through it on their own. This whole mass testing situation seems to be a giant boondoggle.
“Covid Stimulus Talks Break Down, Now What?”
Excellent! Now everyone gets back to work and we throw these stupid masks away.
No, please. Thanks to masks, cases in my County are falling, while the rest of the state, with no mask mandate, is rising. My business falls whenever cases rise, so masks are bringing more customers into my store.
“retroactive to July 1”
There ought to be a law prohibiting retroactive law changes with only one exception: laws that permanently repeal something can be retroactive such that those with outstanding violations can be forgiven. That’s it. No other retroactive laws.
And laws should have to be individual & stand-alone. Not part of some bigger package. Good luck with that.
Let’s start with small reforms that most people can agree on and work from there, yes?
My state has a wonderful provision in the Constitution. No statue can become law unless it it read in it’s entirety into the official record. It keeps the laws short, and to the point.
We have single subject for all bills by the legislature per the Colorado Constitution. An amendment the people put in.
There actually is, the constitution says :
Ex post facto is most typically used to refer to a criminal statute that punishes actions retroactively, thereby criminalizing conduct that was legal when originally performed. Two clauses in the United States Constitution prohibit ex post facto laws:
Art 1, § 9
This prohibits Congress from passing any laws which apply ex post facto.
Art. 1 § 10.
This prohibits the states from passing any laws which apply ex post facto.
It is “TYPICALLY” used to refer to criminal law, but the constitution is silent about that element, in fact it just forbids ex post facto laws.
Another article 1 section 9 (CLAUSE 2) is this and Trump has already laid the ground work to end it:
2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion or Vandalism the public Safety may require it.
That is right, what he did in Portland violated that part of the constitution and he got more or less away with it unless you count whining on the part of the Mayor and Governor. In fact we still do not know for certain who was taken and what became of them. There may still be people taken that are held in detention without any announcements or rights being extended to those individuals.
I would look for the end of habeas corpus as one of many late October surprises. And Bill Barr going to the media and justifying it as needed because of credible threats which will not be shared with us due to the national security.
We will just have to trust these fuckers. Right? My advice is to take the month of October off and go visit a nation with no extridition treaty with the US. If I am wrong and elections are held then you should return. If I am right you will be glad you went.
While we are at it, there ought to be a law where the judicial branch is only allowed to strictly evaluate laws as written, and not allowed to selectively re-write law through their own unique interpretation or to change the law through prior judicial precedent. Just sayin’….
Technically, the courts don’t rewrite the law, they only interpret how those laws can be applied, if a law or part of a law is so fatally flawed under the constitution it is simply struck downthen congress of course can have another go at writing a version that meets constitutional muster.
The courts can and do often cut away parts of legislation that is passed and signed into law when those parts are unconstitutional while leaving remaining parts of the law in place and Obamacare is a good example of that.
If they strip out a part, or rather they will effectively strip out parts, by saying those parts cannot be enforced, then it is up to congress and the president to come up with a better version OR repeal the entire law. Sometimes both the legislative and executive branch want things that are blatantly unconstitutional like Trump’s threat to do unilateral action on Covid relief, which would instantly be appealed to the SCOTUS under an emergency relief request, possibly arguments heard the same day, and the court will strike those things, the congress does have a right to actually change the constitution so that they can pass laws that are clearly unconstitutional as written. Sure the odds are against any changes, but if it is as important as the congress thinks it is then the likelyhood of passing a change goes up. It acts like a cap guaranteeing that any changes are indeed critically important.
“the congress does have a right to actually change the constitution ”
As I recall, that requires ratification by 3/4 of the states to take effect.
My point about the judicial branch was that they should not be editing laws by selectively striking sections or re-interpreting language to squeeze them through the process. That’s a judicial line-item veto of sorts, which I do not think they are entitled to. They should strike down the entirety of such a law and if the Congress wants to amend it and resubmit it then they can. The reason this is important is it ensures more diverse points of view go into amending the law than that of a judge or a few judges.
The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.
THEN 3/4 of the states legislatures must approve it.
What you are proposing is simply a much longer way of doing things. If the courts strike down part of a law as an infringement of the constitution the legislators have the same ability to retry to make that part of the law workable, just as though the whole law was nullified. And some laws like the ACA are monolithic, many thousands of pages. The tax code has MILLIONS of pages.
Another thing is whether or not a law is constitutional is not something the courts automatically rule on, they do not sit there reading every bill or law congress deals with for parts that do not meet constitutional criteria. These laws and parts of laws only get judged when a citizen files an appeal that his or her rights have been violated and they seek redress. Sometimes a perfectly good law will have a minor flaw that is not directly unconstitutional in itself but has the effect down the roaad of impacting rights. Another issue is that very often in our history rights not enumerated in the constitution have come to be seen as distinct rights that the courts must uphold as society evolves over time, an example of this is the right to marriage, straight people ALWAYS had it, but only recently has that been recognized to be the right of all citizens who reach their state’s majority for marriage. And this should have been obvious since th e 18th century since one of the most fundmental rights is that of equal protection under the law.
Courts have only recently and not very perfectly by any means, stop seeing race, gender, and all the other things that laws seem to want to discriminate upon. Laws, our government, courts, should see you as a human individual who happens to be a citizen.
The problem is the legislator can’t really explain in detail what they want, so the lawyers who write the legislation have to make it vague. Then the courts strike it for being vague or reinterpret it based on testimony before committees in Congress from the transcripts of those committee hearings.
There is a lot of comedy in hearing Congress bellyache about debt, despite their $1.5T deficits (pre-Covid) and unwavering support for the Fed and bank bailouts.
It’s not about whether or not “QE for the people” is correct, it’s about rank hypocrisy.
Cut all military spending until we recover from Covid. Use the money to restore lost salaries for people who work (a lot of people got their salary cut) and 70% of full income if you’ve lost work.
Our “enemies” will clap their hands and do the same, making global recovery faster.
I sure as hell prefer giving checks (of the people’s money) to individuals than to state governments, who will misallocate in worse ways.