Details of the Wuhan virus Congressional pork bill
With the Democrats in Congress retreating from their effort to stuff the fake COVID-19 stimulus bill with many provisions irrelevant to the virus, including many that would have helped them steal elections, the basic features of the new $2 trillion bill are now becoming clear.
Not surprisingly, it is filled with wonderful payoffs to big and small business, as well as the voters, all of which our federal government cannot afford, and all of which are sadly desperately needed by the citizenry because of the very bad policies the government imposed on the nation because of the virus.
- Big Businesses: About $500 billion can be used to back loans and assistance to companies, including $50 billion for loans to U.S. airlines, as well as state and local governments.
- Small Businesses: More than $350 billion to aid small businesses, including $10 billion in SBA grants of up to $10,000 for small business costs, and $17 billion for SBA to cover six months of payments for businesses with current SBA loans.
- Hospitals: A $150 billion boost for hospitals and other health-care providers for equipment and supplies.
- Individuals: Direct payments to lower- and middle-income Americans of $1,200 for each adult, as well as $500 for each child.
The bill has a number of restrictions on these payments, which on their face make sense. The problem however is that so far the numbers of people sick from COVID-19 simply do not justify this spending.
No matter. Chicken Little has won again. Common sense no longer exists.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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With the Democrats in Congress retreating from their effort to stuff the fake COVID-19 stimulus bill with many provisions irrelevant to the virus, including many that would have helped them steal elections, the basic features of the new $2 trillion bill are now becoming clear.
Not surprisingly, it is filled with wonderful payoffs to big and small business, as well as the voters, all of which our federal government cannot afford, and all of which are sadly desperately needed by the citizenry because of the very bad policies the government imposed on the nation because of the virus.
- Big Businesses: About $500 billion can be used to back loans and assistance to companies, including $50 billion for loans to U.S. airlines, as well as state and local governments.
- Small Businesses: More than $350 billion to aid small businesses, including $10 billion in SBA grants of up to $10,000 for small business costs, and $17 billion for SBA to cover six months of payments for businesses with current SBA loans.
- Hospitals: A $150 billion boost for hospitals and other health-care providers for equipment and supplies.
- Individuals: Direct payments to lower- and middle-income Americans of $1,200 for each adult, as well as $500 for each child.
The bill has a number of restrictions on these payments, which on their face make sense. The problem however is that so far the numbers of people sick from COVID-19 simply do not justify this spending.
No matter. Chicken Little has won again. Common sense no longer exists.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Yes….it IS ludicrous.
I’m just hoping that all that relief money blows through the economy so fast that it doesn’t become an inflation instigator.
And keep your fingers crossed for Easter.
Hmmm… Two trillion dollars is a bunch, about ten percent of GNP. But maybe it isn’t all that terrifying. Those direct payments to individuals, for instance, will cost at most under 400 billion bucks — that’s a run of the mill Republican tax cut these days. The 500 billion for big business loans is more imposing, but based on past experience this century, I expect the federal government will break even or even turn a middling profit in the end.
350 billion for small business is more iffy … but one can make an argument that as a society being crushed under the weight of giants like Amazon and Walmart that maybe we ought to be extending some aid to small businesses. We could debate that one for hours, Mr. Zimmerman, and maybe after we got past the right-vs-left cants of our initial arguments, we might find substantial agreement.
The 150 billion for hospital aid also makes some sense if we ignore ideology. It now seems abundantly clear that we’ve been cheese paring some parts of the medical system for years in our never ending battle to contain medical costs, and maybe we ought to allow for a little expansion. Certainly, if we’d been thinking about we were doing in the first place, we would NEVER have so blithely shipped away our drug and antibiotic production to foreign lands as we did!
Dealing with the corona-19 virus is like a war — the beginnings of a war. We’re taking some hard shots and suddenly realizing past mistakes, but we’ve still time and the capacity to deal with those difficulties. And the heart.
You’d think the loss of tax revenue alone would give government pause on shutting down business. I suppose it doesn’t matter so much when you can print money, The state’s don’t have that option, and I’m waiting for the several Legislatures to pass tax bills to ‘recover’ costs incurred.
The Leftist Democrat Socialists are incentivizing NOT working when this blows over, and it will blow over, probably in increments or by location. They are creating one giant government teat for the masses to suckle.
Then what !?
Bernie Sanders Socialist dream?
Trump MUST force the Democrats to his agenda and will and a rational escapable bill.
If they will not, then pass NOTHING.
And then point the finger where it belongs, right in Nancy, Chuck, and Bernie’s face until they garner the necessary pressure from the public that they will certainly get.
This is Trump’s wheel house, now lets play the game.
“…all of which are sadly desperately needed by the citizenry because of the very bad policies the government imposed on the nation because of the virus.”
RZ is exactly correct. Most of the extreme government response, unrelated specifically to hospitalization assistance, was unnecessary and extremely detrimental. Politicians and bureaucrats are famous for “breaking your leg, then giving you a crutch”.
We accept 30,000 to 60,000 (or more) influenza deaths per year (mostly in the elderly population, as now) without shutting down the economy and much needed job income and national productivity (eg food, energy, clothing, housing.) We (the government) are ruining ourselves for no proportional reason; just as food hoarding in the stores is completely meritless, driven by irrational fear and the selfishness of our despicable fellow citizens. It is amazing to see what has happened in only a month. Do not expect the best out of your fellow man, expect selfishness and inanity.
FEMA stockpiles some supplies in tornado areas.
I wonder if they stockpile supplies close to urban centers. Stuff like canned goods and MASH or portable medical units.
A few conex containers of inflatable tents and other non perishable medical supplies.