In a failed game plan we have seen before, Republicans put up another obvious bluff on reaching a Covid stimulus deal.
Trump says he is No Hurry for Coronavirus Deal.
“We’re so far apart we don’t care. We really don’t care,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Texas, blaming Democrats.
“We want to take care of the people, the Democrats aren’t taking care of the people,” the Republican president said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were due to resume negotiations with the two top Democrats in Congress: House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
An hour-long meeting of the four broke up late on Tuesday afternoon amid no sign of progress.
“As of now, we’re very far apart,” Mnuchin told reporters.
Money for an FBI Building
Trump wants any legislation to include $1.8 billion to build a new FBI headquarters in Washington.
As he left the White House, Trump scoffed at members of his party who do not back his FBI plan. “(They) should go back to school,” he said.
In a multi-trillion dollar deal, $1.8 billion is meaningless. But if it adds even a few hours of bickering, it doesn’t belong there.
Trump Seeks to Protect His Hotel
Here’s the kicker to the story. Trump’s Washington hotel is across the street from the FBI.
Even Republicans raise eyebrows at this “schooling” effort.
Huge Gap Between the GOP and the Democrat Stimulus Plans
The key problem is the Huge Gap Between the GOP and the Democrat Stimulus Plans.
- Republicans want to spend about $1 trillion with strong internal divisions. The Democrats are united behind Pelosi. They propose $3 trillion.
- Republicans want to eliminate the $600 weekly benefit and replace that with a means test to rejigger benefits so that they replace roughly 70% of a worker’s former wages.
- The Republican bill would make it harder to successfully sue businesses, schools and health-care providers in coronavirus-related cases. The Democrats are united against that idea.
Clock Runs Out
As noted on Sunday the Clock Just Ran Out on $600 in Weekly Unemployment Benefits.
Point number 2 is important in two ways: The pricetag and the delivery time.
The Republican proposal could take many states several weeks or longer to address.
What are the unemployed supposed to do in the meantime?
More Than Half of Business Closures are Permanent
Note that More Than Half of Business Closures are Permanent.
Where are the go back to work jobs supposed to come from?
Same Mistakes Over and Over
Republicans have a propensity for making the same mistakes over and over.
Please recall a Trump said he would not sign any bill that did not include funding for a wall. Trump was totally and thoroughly humiliated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Here are some amusing details from my January 26, 2019 post Trump Signs Spending Bill ending Longest Gov’t Shutdown in History
One of the most remarkable moments during the Senate luncheon came when McConnell told Pence that shuttering the government to try to secure funding for a border wall was not a smart approach.
“I think that a government shutdown is not a good option. That’s my view. The American people don’t like it,” the GOP leader told reporters on Dec. 18, four days before funding lapsed. “You remember my favorite country saying, ‘There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.’ We’ve been down this path before.”
Biggest Wimp Ever
Following the cave-in, Trump Mocked From Both Sides After Caving In, Coulter Claims “Biggest Wimp Ever”
No Education in the Second Kick of a Mule
McConnell blasted Trump in 2018 over an ill-advised budget square-off.
And here we go again.
This time both Trump and McConnell are about to get another kick in the head from a mule.
The mule’s name is “Nancy”.
Philosophically Speaking
Philosophically, people should not make more being unemployed than employed.
Politically speaking, the Republicans are about to get kicked by a mule.
Moreover, it would be better for Trump to have the most stimulus possible to help his election chances. But once again, Trump is hell bent on appeasing the base.
It is not the base that Trump needs to win.
Mish
I think more of Trumps “base” is unemployed or financially damaged than we know. Trump supporters are mainly non college educated white people and are employed in lower income jobs or could be small business owners. As you say Mish – this is nothing like past recessions. Some people stay Republican out of habit, but Not enough. Trump has destroyed the party and they aren’t coming back.
The GOP bill protects employers from employees’ suits over COVID-19 but allows employers to sue employees … just to make perfectly clear how little the GOP cares about all those “human resources” out there … they are just fodder for the crony capitalist engine that drives the vast bulk of the generated wealth to the 1%.
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Whatever the reason for bickering between Democrats and Republicans, the end result is the same. IT is the common man who gets screwed. But then the clowns on both sides are only concerned with who will the common man see as the party that screwed them. In this neither party is different. Not to mention other interests.
In India, the first man past the voting post is the winner. Forget that only 40% of the people voted. Which means the winner has only 21% of the populace who are eligible to vote. But there is something called “losing one’s deposit” meaning that the candidate has not garnered a minimum number of votes.
Thus the best way to get the right candidates (who will do the people’s work) on the ballot paper is not to vote (till the right candidate is on the ballot paper) so no one wins.
Screw both the parties if they do not come up with a deal for the citizen.
Not voting is a powerful weapon. That is why to fool us the media and population make out voting is the right thing to do. All Ps are in the end All Bs.
population=politicians in the above post
One party wants to give people enough to live on. The other one wants to build a new FBI building.
Both sides are not the same. They never were.
Theoretical Physicists Say 90% Chance of Societal Collapse Within Several Decades
Deforestation and rampant resource use is likely to trigger the ‘irreversible collapse’ of human civilization unless we rapidly change course.
by Nafeez Ahmed
July 28, 2020
“Disease is the biggest money maker in our economy.”
― John H. Tobe
Mish the liberal bootlicker.
The more delay the more time for me to buy more gold.
Republicans are taking care of people, but if you’re not in the 0.01%, you aren’t people. This probably won’t play well with any but the very dimmest.
On the plus side, they’ll get lots of footage of their goon squads releasing festive Freedom Cans, Freedom Bags, and Freedom Balls into the hordes of newly hungry, newly homeless, to make scary campaign ads out of.
The best thing for the country is deadlock. Bipartisan bills should make the public very nervous. link to youtube.com
30 million evicted, hungry people are juuuuuuust what this country needs right now.
As long as they’re properly armed, and grow a pair, it may not be such a bad thing.
America was effed, 100% and completely, on the trajectory it was on before covid. Financialization, and absolutely all that derives from it, is a textbook case of a failed experiment. Without a single redeeming quality at all. It is not in any way less failed than the Soviet Union by the 90s, Germany by -44, nor any other failed experiment at totally unlimited, unconstrained government.
So it had/has to change, one way or the other. Ideally, without quite as much turmoil as Germany experienced in the year following -44, but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes. Simply kicking the can, while attempting to keep the undifferentiated horror show we have now afloat in any capacity whatsoever, is the worst of all possible non-solutions. Even worse than the Germany anno -44 one.
If 30 million armed people formally “evicted”, is what it takes to stare down and back down the enforcement apparatus the junta sends to enforce the evictions, such that the debt dependent on their rent blows up, and takes the whole “system” down with it, that’s another textbook definition. This one of the best darned thing which could happen to America right now.
And not only that, that is also one of the few things which could possibly allow America to again become a functional entity at some point in the not too distant future. Since, as it stands now, we really, truly are no more sustainable than, heck not even really meaningfully different from, The Soviets at the dawn of Perestroika, or Argentina ditto Corralito.
Trump Force does have a nice ring to it. “My Trump Force will be my Trump card”. See how many Trumps you can force into a sentence.
“Where are the go back to work jobs supposed to come from?”@Mish , maybe you were not paying attention on the 2020 anniversary of Bastille Day when this new initiative was unveiled.
Find Something New obviously.
We are WINNING hard when it comes to Let Them Eat Cake moments.
Mish this hard line stance by the GOP will certainly appeal to much of the base, though I think that a healthy percentage of them are also deeply affected negatively by Covid and it’s mishandling. Quite a few have died because they are more than half of them in risk categories, “poor but proud,” and low income is certainly a risk factor for Covid. Obesity, older, secondary health issues, the demographics of the GOP make it more vulnerable to Covid.
But, the base of the GOP is only about 35% of voters, where the base of democrats is more like 44% of voters, it is the indy voters or loosly attached to party voters that allow them to win. This is going to blow up in the GOP’s face so spectacularly I predict that it will do more, generational damage, than Watergate did.
The right thinks they are going to score voters by saying this is all democrats fault when it was democrats that passed the 3.4 trillion relief bill more than a month ago and which the GOP in the senate has refused to take up. Now the senate counter proposal is going to fail in the house because it is larded with bullshit that has nothing to do with Covid, or as in the case of Covid related tort reform is simply wrong and unacceptable to democrats, BECAUSE it is unacceptable to our rights. They would simply grant blanket immunity to entities that will abuse people who will get sick, die. By making the burden of proof fall on corporations in this the corporation will have to bear the brunt of the costs of suits, with the GOP immunity except in the case of GROSS willfull negligence they know they are putting the ability to sue out of reach of all but class action suits, and people will not sue because they can’t afford to even when they can prove gross negligence.
On a personal note that is exactly where I am with my new house. I can’t afford to repair the huge damage that was deliberately hidden and lied about, but the layers that do contingency work here will not take the case, they ambulance chasers can’t make enough off the case. I can’t afford $300 per hour to pay a lawyer billed in 15 minute increments, so I just will not be able to repair the house. So, I will ask the bank for forebearance which will give me 6 months without house payments such that I can pay to move in January if the house lasts that long. Of course the government will get stuck with paying the $255,000 principal balance, too bad taxpayers, you should make access to our justice system slightly less expensive because as it is only affluent or better can afford to use it. Justice has nothing to do with our so called justice system now. It is all about the Benjamans, lots and lots of Benjamins. And of course I will never be able to own a house again. I have to tell you Mish, I was proud of my service and loved America, now I sort of have to agree with Iran, death to America (as it is) it simply does not deserve to continue, it has become evil. It serves a rich 10% that has enslaved the other 90%. When I leave this house I will leave America and never return.
Herkie-what is wrong with the house?
The seller had used some sort of bondo like material to fill in rot and termite damage, carpenter ant damage also, and used Killz which blocks tannins from staining the paint for a while at least. Then painted over it all so while it was obvious there was a small problem with rot in some beams over the pool (it has a pergola style pool enclosure) they appeared to be relatively cheap to repair and and also that I had time to get past the expense of the home purchase and cross country move before it had to be addressed.
It turns out some very large and important structural members are involved and also were deliberately disguised. Instead of about $5 grand to repair it is going to be at least $25 grand and could go as high as $45,000 if the roof and solar collector for the pool have to be removed to get at the damage. At the very least about $10k for new pool screen enclosure. But, it just has snowballed out of all proportions. For example the county will not let me just replace like with like, I have to get permits to change out any structural members. They will not issue any permits till I can find and pay a structural engineer to redraw the house plans, because even though the house is only 29 years old they county purged their records rather than archiving them, some were put on microfilm, but mine were not retained. I have called arcitechts and engineers and they basically are laying low till Covid is over. The one that did reply said he is booked out months because so few others are working and it will cost thousands of dollars just to draw plans. He even shuttered his office and just works out of his truck because he is going job to job all day, never in his office. He said he is working 60 hours per week.
And then to get a contractor to actually give an estimate, no way, not going to happen without those structural plans. And I cannot finance any repairs at this point anyway, there is only one HUD title one lender in the state now and it is a credit union I cannot join. When I tried to contact HUD to ask them why they have not approved more lenders all I found out is NOBODY at HUD is actually working. The voice messages at regional offices (even in Georgia and DC) always say they are working from home and will get to you as soon as possible, but then you get the recording that Audex is handling your call and you may not leave a message because the voice mailbox at that extension is full. You may also email them, but when you click on the link at the HUD website it is a dead link, it does nothing at all, it has been disabled.
My last hope was the legal system because it is an open and shut provable case of seller fraud of non disclosure of serious structural problems, it even fooled the VA inspector. He did see some rot in the pool enclosure area but those beams over the pool only held up their own weight and the screens of the enclosure, they were not “structural.” He did not catch that main structural members were also involved. It even passed a wood destrying organism inspection two days after the four point inspection so why in the world would I suspect that there was serious structural issues?
The VA was zero help, they have a home rehab loan program but those loans specifically cannot be used for “structural problems.” If you need a new HVAC system or repair to tile work, or other non structural (and non luxury) issues fine, you can even use it to buy new appliances or fix an electric problem, but if your house is about to fall on your head they will not approve the loan even if it means the house will be condemned. They will be stuck with the house and pying off a quarter million to the banksters, their plan is that those problems be caught prior to a mortgage issuance, not after. I think they see a loan to fix structural issues as throwing good money after bad or something, either way they will not help me but did say how sorry they are for my rotten luck.
The house does not have the time it would take to go through a multi year legal process. And I suspect part of the reason the contingency law firm declined to take my case was that they know there are too many ways the seller can get out of paying anyway. For example he can sell his expensive home on Cape Cod and hide the proceeds off shore, and then file bankruptcy when any judgement is rendered against him. So I would have gone through the whole legal recourse thing only to get nothing anyway and the law firm would be shafted also, unpaid for their work. The alternative which is I hire a lawyer out of pocket is first I do not have those kinds of resources as a 100% disabled veteran, $300 per hour is a lot of money up front. And second if I do pay and the weasel finds a way to avoid paying the tab any judge would award I will be as financially bankrupt as he is morally.
This is simply a classic NO WIN SITUATION! So, do not feel bad for me, just be really damned glad none of you are in this same boat. Justice in America goes to the highest bidders and it is scarce indeed. $$$$$$$. If you have to ask how much it costs you seriously can’t afford it. One crook has taken so much more than money from me, it is hard to believe he is not a republican politician.
First Thing: Forget lawyers, too expensive. Second: It always buyer beware at all times and everywhere. Forget Govt Agencies. Third: Tear down and dispose of everything that is not absolutely vital to the house. Only scanned your post, but you mentioned pergola (gone, get rid of it) deck (gone to). This is all doable by you and find some Mexican that you can pay. Third: Get books and read up on your problems and see if you can find independents who can repair small problems. Fourth: You will get better and more knowledgeable as you go along. Tackle the hardest problems last. Fifth: You can do it. I have repaired plenty of sub standard rental property and sold in better shape than I found it. Sixth: Don’t go the foreclosure route. You can pull yourself out of this mess. Seventh: cover the pool up and shut it down. Simplify everything. Avoid government agencies as much as possible. Do the repairs right though. Eight: Find a good real estate lawyer, who can get the county planning agencies off your back. Stay away from County building office, they already know you too well.
The only contact I had with them was to have an archive search done to see if the plans were still available. That was done through a different office and a lowly clerk, the plans were not found. Wich is a big plus, since they do not have the plans they have NO IDEA what was there before. The only other contact I had was when I asked about needing a permit to change out the beams. But, I did not give my name or address.
The real problem is the urgency of the matter, those beams will not last the year. And I am not getting rid of the pool, I need it, I have arthritis in my hips and knees, the pool is about the only real work out I get that is low impact enough for them. I really want the guy that did this to pay, somehow, I do not trust karma to deal with him and he needs to learn a serious lesson.
It is better that cities borrow and default than for the Federal government borrow on their behalf, and then default.
The federal government can never default. The states still have to live within their means no matter. The Fed has already bought into bond market which includes state and local bonds along with federal and corporate bonds.